The destruction of a moderate muslim

I have been reading about the plight of Iktimal Hage-Ali the other day and how she has been implicated in a drug scandal.

For those that don’t know, Hage- Ali is a young Muslim woman, age 22, who is deputy chairwoman of the NSW Youth Advisory Board and was recently named as a finalist for the 2007 NSW Young Australian of the year.

She is also a moderate spokesperson for a religion that needs more moderates to speak out. Unfortunately, the voice of Islam in Australian is usually a hardline male cleric, so to read the opinions of a young, literate woman who defends her faith is a welcome change. This has not sat well with a lot of the hardline leaders of the Islam faith as she doesn’t mind having a sip of champagne (This is against the rules of Islam apparently). She has also publicly criticised the Muslim cleric leader in Australia, Sheikh Hilali, about his previous comments regarding "uncovered meat" when describing secular women who dress in skimpy or revealing clothing. There seems to be a lot of Muslims out there who wish she was less outspoken.

And it seems that the hardliners have got their wish. It has been reported far and wide in the press that Hage-Ali was arrested in regards to a cocaine ring. While she was released without charge, it appears the other three people arrested with her were charged with drug offences.
Now drugs seem to be an issue that causes a lot of friction in Australia at the moment, and everyone has an opinion of whether it is better to treat drugs as a criminal menace or a health issue. Both opinions have some validity.

But for me, the only thing that matters is that she was released without charge. As far as the law is concerned, she is innocent. I would think that should be the end of the scandal and she should be able to go about her business of helping her community.
Unfortunately that has not been the case. She has been vilified in her community as not being a proper role model for Islam and threatened with sacking from the
NSW Attorney Generals Department, where she works. Her News Limited Blog is also down. She has voluntarily given up her award for NSW Young Australian of the year. All for being arrested but not charged.

So what is the issue here? That she knows people who use or deal drugs? I would hazard a guess that most people under the age of 40 know someone who takes drugs on a regular basis. And it seems everyone knows the person in their circle who can obtain drugs on demand. Indeed lots of people under the age of 40 take drugs and hold respectable positions in the community.
And it’s not as if Muslim people are immune from the temptation of drug use. Internationally, Afghanistan is one of the biggest cultivators of opium, even under the militant Islamic rule of the Taliban. And young people of every religion are subject to peer pressure, especially if they assimilate into the wider community.

The only criticism I have with Iktimal is that she caved in too early. She should have fought the good fight to clear her name, stressed that she was not charged with any offences, and rode out the media storm. You have to fight the jackals of the press or they will eat you alive. And some support from the community who she had helped so much as well as some family members would also have been appreciated I’m sure. They were conspicuous by their silence.

The whole affair makes me wonder who was responsible for the leak. Was it elements of the anti-Islam lobby who wanted to cut down an articulate, moderate female who spoke the mainstream language? Or was it the hardline Muslim community for exactly the same reason.