Fadwa Wazwaz

Every time we make assumptions about what other people feel, do or think, we imprison them and us in a separate reality. When we believe in those assumptions and act accordingly, this separate reality becomes an existential torture chamber for them and ultimately for us. All the terror and pain that we experience or see in the world is the result of our assumptions. Assumptions are the greatest crime in human consciousness. Hence let’s start to create an assumption-free world.

Franco Santoro

Which lenses of truth should we use to see ourselves and others?

Reformers or corrupters?

Fadwa Wazwaz independently studies ethics, philosophy, law & spirituality, faith and values, arts and culture, Muslim and Palestinian events emphasizing the stories of the Prophets in the Quran. She often asks: which lenses of truth should we use to see ourselves and others? How can we tell the two apart, for we all tell stories claiming ourselves and our tribe as the protagonist, using assumptions and conjecture that often carry and implant seeds of prejudice and malice about people’s intent or specific actions? The same facts can have different meanings and be told as countering, i.e., in varying contradictions to each other.

Fadwa Wazwaz reflected on this reality in light of faith. The Prophets’ stories, as related in the Quran by God, provided light to answering these and many questions.

In addition, power has a master narrative that carries assumptions, bias, pride (not dignity), and conjecture that people believe to be accurate and blindly use to engage each other, even God. These assumptions and conjectures are normative life experiences and shared meanings we formulate to speak for others and God. They are framed within cultural, social, and political systems of power. The unchallenged assumptions and conjectures made when people tell and listen to stories can malign, silence, or distort the truth, particularly the stories of the Prophets and the voice of God. When the stories in the Quran are shared as counter-narratives to the dominant voice, these stories enable a different “truth” to emerge and be heard, allowing an enlightened heart a lens of understanding the exact facts of an event. It will help us to see the reformer from the corrupter.

The YouTube channel features her talks. Look for her books, God Intervenes Between A Person And Their Heart, and the forthcoming Love Is Deeper Than Words — plus her YouTube video, blogs and podcast. You’re welcome to link to or embed these videos, blogs, and posts and forward them to others. Share these ideas with people you know if you found them beneficial.

Limiting Liberty: The Recurring Collision of Free Speech and Religion

For more than a decade, I have been a public speaker and author who’s written for the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, Engage Minnesota, MinnPost, and Counterpunch, and others, as well as serving as a community columnist for the Pioneer Press and community blogger for the Star Tribune. Facts and commentary have their place, and I remain interested in the issues that have always animated my work: the effects of racism, gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and oppression. But I want to move beyond socio-political explanations and take my work in a more artful, creative direction.

I am particularly interested in re-telling the stories of the prophets from a Muslim perspective. I don’t want to re-tell these stories in order to highlight legal points or fatwas or religious edicts but to show the prophets as fully dimensional people who interacted with others and ultimately nurtured growth in their families and societies. These human and humane stories bypass rationalizations and stereotypes, speaking to the heart and helping us to re-see our ideas about love, projection, truth, loyalty, wisdom, guidance, gratitude, repentance and many other aspects of our shared humanity.

Stories, after all, can be shared and enjoyed across cultures in a way that facts cannot. I want to craft the prophets’ stories into a complex, multilayered art. Instead of framing stories about the prophets that are about the rules and laws of religion, I want these tales to be about understanding, connectivity, and self-knowledge. The Muslim prophets have mostly been looked at in a negative, controlling way. I want to change that view, to present them in a nurturing, empathetic light, and to bring the reader closer to their lives.

The stories of Adam, from the Qur’an and beyond, can help us ask questions about repentance and forgiveness. The prophet Abraham, for his part, sheds light on what we mean when we talk about “truth,” while Moses’s stories raise questions about power and oppression. The Qur’anic stories about Solomon and David help us think through the nature of gratitude, and Joseph’s stories raise important issues about sexual harassment, projection, and love.

Generally, we don’t look to the Qur’an—or the lives of the prophets—when we think about the contemporary-feeling issue of sexual harassment. But I want to bring these prophets into the contemporary world, and to let them shed their light, and their questions, on concepts such as a woman’s autonomy and her right to refuse a man. I intend to highlight the prophets’ stories in a way that doesn’t belittle readers, or make us feel we’re not good enough, but rather helps us move into our autonomy and independence.

Although these stories are important, they aren’t meant to be easy or inspirational in any straightforward way. As Prof. Benjamin Bratton discussed in his talk, “What’s Wrong with TED Talks,” a placebo politics can work much like placebo medicine. Inspiration, hope, and positive thinking can make us feel good in the moment. But true transformation is about facing the hard stuff, which is something we can do through stories that raise questions instead of giving easy answers.

By sharing stories of prophets in an interconnected way, I hope to illuminate the core of faith, which is mercy, compassion, and coexistence. To do this, all the stories of the prophets must fit together, helping us see ourselves afresh, layer by layer.

As a writer, it’s hard when you’re doing something about which you feel passionately, but you don’t have a community of writers who are also passionate. If you do, you can energize each other as you walk down similar paths.

The writings will be mainly by myself, Fadwa Wazwaz.

In the long term, I hope to invite other writers to share their experience and knowledge.

Areas of Focus:
• Ethics
• Philosophy
• Law & Spirituality
• Faith and Values
• Arts and Culture

Sample Publications

• “Beyond shame, violence, and terror,” Engage Minnesota 2017
• “Loyalty & cooperation are two-way streets,” Engage Minnesota 2016
• “Listening to God–Toward Healing and Reconciliation,” Engage Minnesota 2015
• “My Image, Honor, and Reputation,” Engage Minnesota 2015
• “Distinguishing free speech from hate,” Star Tribune 2014
• “Training Cops to Fear Somalis and Muslims,” Star Tribune 2013
• “Hearings on Islamic Extremism Set the Worst Example,” Star Tribune 2011
• “Israel’s 60th Is Not A Reason For Celebration,” Star Tribune 2008
• “Give Muslims a Platform,” ReligionAndSpirituality.com 2005
• “Bush Appointee Is a Bigot Disguised as a Scholar,” St. Paul Pioneer Press 2003
• “Jesus A Revered Figure In Muslim Religion, Too,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, 2003
• “Oprah Used Her Program To Propagandize For War,” St. Paul Pioneer Press 2003
• “Muslim Leaders Have Not Been Silent About Sept. 11 Attacks,” St. Paul Pioneer Press 2003
• “Muslims Must Intervene To Stop Domestic Violence,” St. Paul Pioneer Press 2003
• “Anti-Terrorism Laws Trample On Civil Liberties,” St. Paul Pioneer Press 2003
• “Koran’s ‘problem’ verses,” Jackson Citizen Patriot (MI) 2001
• “Academic Freedom And Selective Speech,” The Tampa Tribune 2001
• “Palestinian Refugees Are More Than Sad Stories,” Star Tribune 1997

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Fadwa Wazwaz | \ Fəd-wə Wəz-wəz\ is a Palestinian-American born in Jerusalem, Palestine and raised in the US.  She lives in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Follow and connect with Fadwa Wazwaz on her social media platforms on Linktree.

Fadwa Wazwaz’s videos, blogs, and writings may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and following Copyright standards and policies (https://www.wpi.edu/about/policies/copyright-compliance/copyright-law).

For more information on using her work for commercial purposes (e.g. teaching in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at info@engagemn.com