Disruption of the Gujranwala mini-marathon by MMA

Question:
I took your islamic studies course in lums and found it quite interesting. I am curious to know what is your take on the recent incident where the MMA folks disrupted a mini-marathon in Gujranwala because women were taking part in that race.

Frankly, I find that disgusting and am very disappointed that my religion was abused by these folks to commit such a pathetic crime. I have a niece who I wish would grow up to be a track and field athelete for Pakistan and already the sports facilities for women are beyond miserable in Pakistan. I can empathise a little bit with the girls and their parents who were taking part in that race. They must have been traumatized to the point where they may never run again, which is an inexcusable crime in my book.

I have been following that story quite closely and am apalled that I have not read ANY competing religious points of view on this subject yet. Does this mean that there are no differences as far as the religious legality of this action (crime) is concerned or that the people with competing points of view in Islam are afraid to come out in open conflict with these extreme elements.

Please excuse my writing if it gets somewhat strong at times. As you can tell, I have strong feelings about this subject. I do have a lot of respect for you and am geniunely interested in knowing what you think about this issue.

Response:
I can understand your feelings. I know that it is utterly disgusting to find that an event organized by our government included athletes from different places got disrupted in an ugly manner. I condemn those people who caused that unfortunate incident to have happened. However, I include in the list of those who were responsible for it both our rulers and MMA.

I believe MMA should be condemned without mincing words because disrupting an official event in the manner they did is totally unacceptable to Islam. It is an extremely poor advertisement of the religion of Allah. All neutral people who learnt about the events in Gujranwala were disgusted with what had happened. No words can be strong enough for the condemnation of the hooliganism displayed by the supporters of MMA in the name of Islam. Even if a voice of dissent is to be expressed, it should be done, according to Islamic teachings, in a decent manner.

However, I cannot absolve the rulers of their share of the blame for this unfortunate incident. In an effort to show to the world at large that Pakistan is a "liberal" country, they want to rush through their agenda of Westernization on the masses of our country without caring for their religious and cultural sensibilities. Our rulers probably thought that given the exposure of the masses to the Western culture through the media, the masses had become insensitive enough to be unruffled by whatever would be displayed before their eyes in their country. They forgot that changes like the ones that they are desiring to bring about in our society do not happen overnight. Indeed our society has changed considerably over the last two decades in the manner it responds to symbols of Western culture. However, our rulers overestimated the change that had taken place. Our society is still sharply divided on the issue of whether women should be allowed to go public in shorts. I am very confident that a vast majority of our people, both men and women, are still strongly against it. If I am correct in my understanding, then allowing such events as mixed gender marathon races was a serious blunder on the part of the rulers.

Personally, I am not against the idea of women participating on sporting events, even when men are present. Ideally, I would like women to have their events in separate enclosures. However, I don't think that participation of women in the public gaze should be considered forbidden. What I cannot imagine even for a moment to believe acceptable is the possibility that a Muslim woman should run in the public in shorts, or tight trousers, vests, or shirts. Of course, allowing swimming competitions of women to take place in the open when lady swimmers have donned just the customary swimming costumes is unthinkable for Muslim women.

I believe that if you want your niece to became a marathon runner, you have a right to encourage her to do so. However, as a good Muslim uncle, you should tell her that as a Muslim lady, she will have to remain within the limits imposed by the Almighty even when she is participating in a sporting contest. Those limits require that she should cover her body especially her private parts as well as bosoms properly enough for them to not be prominent for the onlookers. If she is decently dressed, she can go ahead with her plans to be a top class athlete. I wish her to be a good athlete as well as a good Muslim so that she succeeds in this world as well as in the hereafter.

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