Desert Foundation Blog

July 25, 2010

Both Fr. Dave and I are adjusting to life away from Dar al Islam and our new friends. Did you know that we slept in bunk beds in dorms – he with four other men, I with six other women, and then there was yet another dorm, and a married couple in their own room? It actually worked out quite well, and the sense of community was deep.

At the final banquet we all received our certificates of “graduation,” having completed 57 (yes, that’s right, 57!) hours of class work! To the tune of “You are my sunshine,” we sang to our teachers and the wonderful staff: “You were our teachers, our Islam teachers. You made us study all night and day. When we’re alone now, we think of surahs (verses of the Qu’ran), and we bend our knees and pray.”

Fr. Dave recited a poem he attempted to write in the Sufi style. (The mountains around Dar al Islam are the Sangre de Cristos, the ones which are also in Crestone, and Pedernal is a flat-topped mountain nearby which Georgia O‘Keefe loved and frequently painted.)

Heart of Sand
Sometimes on the mesa between the wall
Of Christ’s Blood Mountains and the tower of Pedernal;

Sometimes walking the vaulted memory halls
Of the House of Islam I stopped. I heard a call:

Swirling down from a dome it fell on the ear of my heart
Like silent thunder or singing rain. What art

Can rain a song to slake a heart of sand?
When I find the Singer, let me take you to her land.

 I wrote a long funny poem trying to summarize the remarkable experience we’d all shared together, taking care to mention each person by name as a tribute full of gratitude to each one. I can’t possibly explain all the references in the poem to you readers, but I think the feeling comes through.

We lived high on a mesa in old Abiquiu
And right from the start we had so much to do.

A mosque, a madressa, and three sleeping dorms
We studied our Islam according to norms.

Dar al-Islam and their great Institute
Gave us books, many hand-outs, a whole lot of loot.

Dr. Shafi was a primary lecturer,
Helped our study of Qu’ran be much more “correcter.”

The classes, the lectures, discussions and such,
Rehana watched over with her special touch.

 Tariq the saint, Mr. Fix-It, no doubter,
Spent all of his time back and forth to the router. 

With Tariq, Rehana, then Mrs. Shafi,
Hmm… Umayyids, Abbasids – Shafi dynasty?! 

We heard from Iqbal’s fan, Mustansir Mir,
Personally I found him quite dear. 

I thought he presented the Sufis so well,
Though “Women in Islam” for him was pure hell! 

Sulayman Nyang with his African smile
Says, “We are all stories” with our own unique style. 

I loved how he gave us the powerless point,
His tongue-ear connections sure shook up this joint. 

Muslims in Europe, the U.S. and Asia,
From the top of North Africa down to Malaysia.

 “Sue” Douglass gave references, web sites galore,
Andalus, Ind’ian Ocean with lots more in store. 

Karima showed buildings and great Muslim art,
We used our crayons and drew from the heart. 

She taught us haft rang and cool tessellations,
Then brought us the Renaissance Muslim elation: 

Astronomy, math, and that surgical gore,
Philosophy, chess, and so very much more.

 Rabia and Benyamin led us in dzikr,
I learned 99 Names for Allah that much quicker. 

Nadina’s library with books new and ancient,
When we asked questions, she always was patient. 

Sophie in the kitchen along with two Anns,
What wonders they served us from six magic hands. 

Behind the equipment? Melinda and Pat,
One with her curls and one in her hat. 

Who cleaned our toilets when we were not there?
It was Yvonne with meticulous care. 

Dark storm clouds gatherin’, Ali’s Call to Prayer,
Are among the good memories of our being there. 

For Poetry Night we drove to Santa Fe
And on the way home brilliant lightning display. 

The staff cared for details, we had Santa Fe maps,
But afternoon lectures instead of long naps?! 

Sometimes our classes were really a rush,
We even learned ‘bout the Prophet’s toothbrush! 

According to Muslims there’s no ‘riginal sin.
Who did it? Not Eve, so it must be the Jinn! 

I confess I was worried ‘bout life in a dorm,
But sisters, in truth, such deep kinship was born. 

Carrie with glitter on both of her eyes
Always so vibrant and full of surprise! 

Emily opted to pierce her cute nose,
And when she sang for us, all our hearts rose. 

Wendy teaches deaf students with those special signs,
Wears beautiful shirts in bright colored designs. 

Leah and Moss have been married so long
With Ethics concerns and that butterfly song. 

Then there was Dave on his brand new blue bike,
While each early morning the rest took a hike. 

“Cowboys and Aliens” in the White Place,
But Harrison Ford? There was never a trace. 

Speaking of movie stars, then there is Leigh.
Who in the world does she want to see? 

Kubla Khan, Teddy, an Aussie named Hugh,
One thing’s for certain: no one from Peru! 

Beverly, Candy, and Paul, and Renee –
Can you believe we are going away? 

 We won’t see Bradley and Debby and Jess,
Not Larry or Patrick or Toni unless 

For a reunion we all get together
NCSS Denver? –No matter the weather. 

Seriously, Folks, let’s put joking aside.
These two busy weeks have been quite a ride. 

Good food, solid teaching, and many new friends,
So I am asking: May we come again? 

First you were names, then you became faces,
As I go home, on my heart you leave traces.

 Tomorrow from here all of us will be gone,
But tonight I must tell you sincerely –

SHUKRAN!!!

 (Shukran is the Arabic word for “thank you.”)

Fr. Dave and I had hoped to include photos with each day’s entry, but couldn’t make it work, so we’ll post some later, including ones we shared with other participants.

In both Caravans and on the Desert Foundation web site, we’ve showed you pictures of La Plaza Blanca, the White Place, down the road from Dar al Islam. I was looking forward to walking there at dawn and dusk each day, but unfortunately it was closed to us because of the filming of a new movie called Cowboys and Aliens (strange title, strange subject) with Harrison Ford. But one afternoon the crew allowed us to walk there and photograph the gray ash cliffs, but get nowhere near the set they were building. Due to a wrong turn, some of our people saw the spaceship!

“Ali’s call to prayer” deserves special mention. Ali Ellis from Albuquerque is an American convert to Islam. He has a magnificent voice, and his Call to Prayer is the most moving I’ve heard outside of the Middle East. This call may well be my most favorite prayer in the world. It stops me in my tracks every time and fills me with adoration. I’ll miss hearing it several times a day now that I’m home in Crestone.

Tessa Bielecki

July 23, 2010

Today was our last day, and another enriching one. First we presented the results of our study projects and take-home lesson plans. The one I liked best was done by Bev, Debby, Brad, and Toni. We have permission to use it and will eventually put it up on the Desert Foundation web site so you can benefit from “Islam: Misconceptions and Commonalities.” One of the most effective sections listed passages from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptures to “test” whether we would identify the most violent ones as Muslim, which of course is false.

Two other projects focused on Muslim art and architecture around the world, showing the diversity, and including a virtual tour of one of the most famous and magnificent mosques in the world. This, too, we will eventually make available to you.

I’m thinking of doing a feature on the web site called something like “Islam 101” to share more of what we’ve learned with you. Would you like that? Or is this the kind of thing that is better done face to face? If you are a teacher of any kind, you can also apply to this all-expenses-paid institute and learn here in Abiquiu as well. Just go to the Dar al-Islam web site and click on the Teachers’ Institute.

The most remarkable project is being done by Dar al-Islam itself. Click again on the Dar al-Islam site and go to Project Sakinah (the Arabic word for “tranquility”). This is an attempt to wake up the Muslim community to the reality of domestic violence. The “Muslim Wheel of Domestic Violence,” developed by Dr. Sharifa Alkahteeb, conveys some of the ways religion can be distorted to justify abuse against women. “Using Male Privilege” is the most enlightening and includes “husband’s dominance and inflexibility extolled as Qu’ranically mandated requiring obedience in all matters; wife’s opinions, aspirations, plans considered as ‘Western’ and un-Islamic; wife encouraged to fear husband; husband repeats bogus Hadith about women bowing to men.” Economic abuse includes “refusing to allow wife to get education or training,” and “taking her entire paycheck while Islam allows her to keep it all.”  I mention these details because of misconceptions about the role of women in Islam.

It is crucial to distinguish between what the religion of Islam sanctions and what some Muslims do. And, of course, the same is true for our understanding of all religions. I can’t write more now. It’s time for our final “banquet” and farewells. I’m eager to get home to the silence and solitude of my hermitage, but I will truly miss all these exceptional people who manifest such intelligence, openness, integrity, and compassion.

Tessa Bielecki

This morning, Dr. Shafi’ recounted the history of Muslim understandings of the relationship between Islam and governments. Has there ever been an “Islamic state”? Are there any today? Does the Qur’an talk about it? The answers, respectively, are probably: not since 750, no, and no. With the fall of the Umayyad dynasty in 750, Islam began to differentiate, and governments could eventually be called “Muslim” when the majority of the population became Muslim. But contemporary radicals who may call for a new “universal caliphate” that governs the world according to the teachings of Islam (or politicians who claim that such radicals exist and must be opposed) are not referring to anything that has existed, nor are they referring to anything described or promoted by traditional Muslim teachings.

Dr. Shafi’ claims that one verse of the Qur’an (4:59) may refer to rulers. Or it may instead refer to other, non-governing authorities in Muslim society. He contends that Muslims are a diverse community spanning many countries and continents, and they establish governments that reflect local customs and cultures. If the local culture does not contradict Islam, then it has more force than some foreign “Muslim” idea about how one ought to govern. I found this a helpful counter to the prevailing propaganda that instills fear by claiming that “the Muslim world” wants to govern the rest of us. “There are no prospects of universal unity on religious doctrine,” he concluded, ” much less the structure and operation of a state.”

This is our eleventh day here and it has been rich and inspiring–and exhausting! It’s hard to concentrate, and we found ourselves struggling to remain awake during this afternoon’s question and answer session.

Fr. Dave

July 21, 2010

It’s almost impossible to summarize the clarifying richness of today’s classes. First we looked at jihad and then terrorism. There is NO linkage between the two. Definitions given in the Oxford English Dictionary, Webster’s Second Edition, and even A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, published in 1960, are incorrect. (I know that dictionaries can be wrong because I’ve seen the prejudicial definitions of “hermit” which clearly do not describe my own eremitical life.)

Jihad means “moral struggle” and differs from qital, the word the Qu’ran uses for military engagement. We looked at the strict Muslim Rules of Engagement, which made me ashamed of the ways in which the U.S. has gone to war. The Rules against harming non-combatants are especially damning. “Food crops, fruit and shade trees, or any private property cannot be destroyed or appropriated.” And most relevant to my own way of life: “Monks, hermits, and all those engaged in religious worship cannot be killed.”

 We also looked at crucial articles in which official Muslim scholars denounce the horrors of 9/11 and suicide bombing, which is considered murder and “self-killing” and therefore forbidden. (In some future entry on our web site, we’ll give you some links to understand all this better.)

Neither a scholar nor a “rabble-rouser” can declare a jihad, only a “legitimate executive authority” such as a president, a king, or a sultan, and then only in a state run by Muslims. This means that Osama bin Laden is completely illegitimate in his demands upon other Muslims. The trouble is, naturally, that many Muslims are ignorant of their own orthodox tradition, as so many Christians are ignorant of theirs.

The second lecture, unfortunately following so close after, was a dense history of the Sunni and Shi’a traditions. I confess that I went almost cross-eyed with all the names – multiple Alis, Muhammeds, Hasans and one Husayn; the “Fivers,” the “Seveners,” and the “Twelvers;” the Zaydis, the Fatimis, the Nizaris, the Ismailis; the “Rightly Guided Caliphs,” the Party of Ali, and Rifts within the “Partisans;” and various understandings of the person and power of the “Imam,” leading to the 20^th century inflation of titles such as Ayatullah.

I realize I haven’t “unveiled” much of this here, but it’s just too complicated. What impressed me today is the number of branches in the Shi’ite tradition and the varying teachings and beliefs.

The day ended with a showing of a powerful documentary, Prince among Slaves, the story of Abdul Rahman Ibrahima Sori, a prince in West Africa who was captured and brought to Mississippi as a slave in the late eighteenth century. This is how Islam first came to America so long ago, although it didn’t survive any better than the indigenous cultures of the slaves. We’ll give you a link about the video later.

We had two powerful thunderstorms today, and this dry thirsty land is now drenched with rain, and the sunset was glorious as the Call to Prayer rang out through the desert.

Tessa Bielecki

This morning I rode my bike down along the Chama River again as the first rays of sunlight awakened the green of cottonwood leaves and the ochre-brown cliffs.

Our first lecture of the day, by Dr. Muhammad Shafi’, introduced us to the various schools of jurisprudence that have developed in Muslim cultures. The Qur’an’s approximately 6000 verses (ayahs) contain only about 500 verses that may be considered “regulations.” That means that a lot is left unsaid and unregulated. So, as new situations arise, Muslim scholars team up to decide how to evaluate these new developments, basing their judgments on the Qur’an, the hadith, analogy, and reason. It was enlightening to learn that these judgments change over time and from country to country.

Dr. Sulayman Nyang then led us through an examination of how relationships within and between western and Muslim cultures have shifted dramatically since the 16th century. Portuguese navigators opened new worlds to Europe, which led to the destruction of a previous world of trade and intercultural enrichment among peoples of Africa, the Middle East and India. Vasco da Gama, whom I “met” in grade school as a great hero of the age of discovery, turns out to be more of a pirate than a noble ambassador of “Christian” culture.

Then came big, sometimes violent changes within western cultures: American, French, and Russian revolutions that changed the understanding of church-state relationships. Whereas these changes have settled into “normalcy” in the West, many Muslim cultures, adjusting to industrialization and new nation-states (usually created by western imperial powers), are in the thick of settling these crucial questions. The revolution in Iran was the mirror image of France: rather than deifying the state and virtually destroying the role of the church, they elevated religious ideology into a political regime.

Finally, we continued our “tour” of the Muslim roots of the European Renaissance with Karima Alavi and saw how, in the midst of European assertion of supremacy over the “benighted” Muslim world, the finest arts and crafts that show up in western art are chock full of products from Syria, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, India, and all the lands along the Silk Route. We learned that it took centuries for merchants to embrace Arabic numerals: although using them made accounting so much easier, some Europeans suspected that these powerful products of an “heretical” culture were a dangerous kind of “magic.” It’s amazing to me that so much of the wisdom and technology that we think of as “western” are in fact imports from Muslim cultures. Astrolabes, chemistry, medical and pharmaceutical knowledge, fine fabrics, foods, philosophy–these devices, disciplines, techniques, arts, and crafts all owe a great debt to Muslim culture.

Of course I loved returning to my favorite period and place: medieval Spain. I never tire of hearing about the great Mosque in Cordoba, the schools of translation in Toledo, and the bittersweet twilight of Muslim culture in Granada.

Fr. Dave

July 18, 2010

It’s not easy to study Islam. Dar al-Islam teaches “normative” vs. “descriptive” Islam, that is, the historical origins of the tradition vs. controversial contemporary manifestations. I’ve really come to appreciate this approach. I now understand that Muslims consider the Qu’ran so sacred as the word of God that it cannot be changed, although various Schools of Law interpret it differently. There are also differences from country to country and from region to region within a country. Differences occur between urban and rural areas and, of course, between more and less educated areas.

We have been cautioned against “presentism” or “tempocentrism,” that is, evaluating the past from the perspective of today. (Our Spanish friend, Raimon Panikaar, pioneer in east-west dialogue, calls this same error “catachronism,” the opposite of anachronism.)

Fr. Dave and I have just “come home” to Dar al-Islam, which feels more and more like home, after our all too brief day off. We were so tired we hardly talked for 24 hours. We did four loads of laundry and watched a little TV. I slept in till 8 am today! Then I did some research on the study project we’re sharing with Paul Bradley, who teaches at Eastern Christian High School in North Haledon, New Jersey. (The 18 of us have divided into groups according to interests.)

We three have decided to compare stages of growth in Sufi mysticism (the mysticism, or inner life of Islam) with stages in Christian Mysticism. Most of the people here use the internet extensively, and I long for our Desert Foundation library at home! But I forced myself to look at some Sufi web sites on line and will then fill in with mystical reflections and poems from our wealth of books in Crestone.

I hear the others returning from various outings to the Taos pueblo, Christ in the Desert monastery, Los Alamos, the Mexican fiesta at Las Golandrinas, and hiking at Bandelier Monument, so I’ll close. It’s almost time for dinner, and I’m hungry! The food here is excellent: healthy to eat and beautiful to look at, with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Tessa Bielecki



Sorry we missed writing yesterday. It was an unusually busy day without a break. During “free time” in the afternoon we had a meeting about our group study projects. We had a major question and answer session, and a talk on the links between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which focused exclusively on scripture and the prophets. (We had hoped for more spiritual links.) The morning session was the most satisfying for us because it focused on Sufism and the inner life of Muslim spirituality and included some beautiful poetry.

After dinner we were unexpectedly invited to a Sufi dhikr, an evening of prayer, song, and chant with our friends Benyamin and Rabia Van Hattum at the small neighborhood mosque that we have visited several times before with our students. After nearly a week of intense “book learning” it was refreshing to set aside the study mind and open up the heart as well as our singing voices. It was a vivid experience of the poem we had heard earlier by Bullhe Shah, the 18^th century Punjabi mystic:

The books you read …
Are piled around you, and so high! …
Enough, my friend, of learning, enough!

This evening instead we tasted “the lesson of love.”

Fr. Dave and Tessa

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The day began with another remarkable lecture by Susan Douglass who gave us more helpful resources. We mapped the rise of Islam, distinguishing between the rapid spread of Muslim territory and the gradual growth of Islam as a religion, which coincided with the growth of Christianity and Buddhism.

Do you know that only 12% of the world’s Muslims are Arabs? And half the population of Africa is Muslim? It’s also important to note that the Qu’ran specifies: “Let there be no compulsion in religion” (2:256). This verse tells Muslims that they cannot force people to convert to Islam.

We had Professor Mustansir Mir twice today. In the morning he took us through the Medinan period of Muhammed’s life. In the evening we explored the Muslim Articles of Faith. He really lights up when he quotes the poet Iqbal, whom I don’t know. Just as I was about to ask who he was, Fr. Dave beat me to it! And then Mir went into ecstasy describing him as one of the most brilliant poet-philosophers in the history of Islam. Naturally Fr. Dave will order the Persian-Urdu anthology, Tulip in the Desert!

This will be short because we have lots of homework tonight, including an essay entitled “The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization,” a subject very dear to our own hearts.

Tessa Bielecki

I’m stimulated and exhausted at the end of an astounding day. We began with a lecture on Islam in America by Gambian scholar Sulayman Nyang. I was stunned when he began to talk about the possibility of Muslim contacts with Native Americans in the pre-Columbian era. Some scholars believe they see Arabic influences on Native American languages and there are historical accounts of possible voyages across the Atlantic by African Muslim navigators.

Dr. Nyang moved on through American history since the founding of the United States. I was surprised by the extent of the Muslim presence. As he built his stories of these immigrant experiences in the U.S., I found myself swelling with a sense of patriotism I hadn’t felt in a long time. Sometimes we associate patriotism with a narrow sense of America’s Christian moral superiority and pride ourselves on shutting out other “alien” cultures. But America is also the land of wild differences and opportunity for families from every corner of the world.

Later, Pakistani Islamic scholar Mustansir Mir took us through the cultural context in which Muhammad was born, and then the first years of his life in Mecca and the beginnings of his prophetic life. Mustansir’s voice is mellifluous and especially spellbinding when he quotes Arabic poetry.

This evening, Susan Douglass of Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding shared an amazing number of invaluable resources, including Muslim art and architecture, Islamic Spain, the cultural history of the Indian Ocean, teaching Islam and other world religions in a fair and balanced way. We look forward to introducing you to some of these in the future.

While I took a siesta and studied this afternoon, Tessa took some of our new friends to Abiquiu and showed them the penitente morada, the beautiful old adobe church, and Georgia O’Keeffe’s house. It was in the 90s today, but we also had our first hint of rain.

Fr. Dave

Monday, July 12, 2010

 This was an intense first day of learning. We took a tour of the mosque and madressa, “school” in Arabic, which enhanced our appreciation of the classical Muslim architecture. Then class began with a reading from the Qur’an. Because I love color imagry, this was my favorite verse:
(Our religion is)
The Colour of Allah:
And who can colour better
Than Allah? And it is He
Whom we worship.
We then had a lengthy discussion of the challenges of teaching about Islam, including closedmindedness, islamophobia, the differences between classical and current Islam, misinformation, especially from the media, conflicts within Islam itself, and the difference between cultural Islam and fundamental beliefs based on the Qur’an and Islamic Law.
All of us are interested in finding resources from the non-western world and learning how to communicate with far-right Christians who will not listen. And what do we want to inspire in our students? Mere tolerance? Acceptance? Or something deeper, such as respect and appreciation?
During the afternoon we watched a film entitled New Muslim Cool about a Puerto Rican rapper who converted to Islam and turned from drug dealing to drug counseling. There’s the “brotherhood of the street,” he explained to inmates at the county jail, and an even higher brotherhood of “companionship in God” through which we begin to find that elusive peace within ourselves.
After dinner we had “Arabic 101” with Dr. Mohammad Shafi from Pakistan. We pronounced every word of the alphabet, not so much to remember it but to “taste” the flavor of the language. We learned that the Qur’an was the first book written down in “book” form vs. scrolls, the Arabic grammar the first grammar in any language, the Arabic dictionary the first dictionary in any language. The lesson was overwhelming for most of us, especially at the end of the day. I was almost falling asleep but deeply awed by the sophistication, subtlety, and elegance of the language.

Tessa Bielecki