"Office Hours" #9: In Conversation With Muslims for Progressive Values' Ani Zonneveld

Hi all,

On Friday evening, the tens of millions of Muslims around the world will celebrate the end of Ramadan with the holiday Eid al-Fitr, or “the Festival of Breaking the Fast.” And though an estimated 1.8 billion people — more than 24% of the world’s population — identify as Muslims and thus observe Eid al-Fitr, many of our readers may be unfamiliar with the holiday.

“It’s kind of like the Muslim version of Christmas,” Vox has explained, “in the sense that it’s a religious holiday where everyone comes together for big meals with family and friends, exchanges presents, and generally has a lovely time.”

In commemoration of Eid al-Fitr, we at JBC reached out to Ani Zonneveld — founder and president of Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV), an international human rights organization that provides educational and theological resources for Muslims with a liberal or progressive Islamic worldview — to learn more about her relationship with Islam and the long-held misconceptions that non-Muslim individuals may have about the faith.

Thank you so much to Ani for sharing her time and wisdom with us. You can find our Q&A below.

Eid Mubarak!

Jenny & Melissa

JBC: Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) seeks to dismiss false ideologies about Muslims and Islam. How do you go about advancing that mission in your daily work? How can individuals — particularly those who are not Muslims themselves — help to dispel these misconceptions in their respective communities?

Ani Zonneveld, founder and president of MPV: With interviews such as this, it helps us get our human rights perspective out there to the non-Muslim, as well as to the progressive Muslims out there. For years, the omission of our progressive perspective has only painted the Muslim community as homogeneous, and that the only “real” Muslims are the conservative and radical ones. This is such a disservice to our society at large, and reinforces the deep-seated prejudices people have of Muslims. It also does a number to young Muslims who are struggling with their inclusive worldview with their faith tradition.

When you grow up seeing horrific headlines of terrorism by, supposedly, your co-religious, kids grow up being shameful of their identity. An event I’m proud of organizing is called “Celebration of Life,” where we highlight Muslim human rights defenders who themselves are persecuted or killed for doing good works. In other words, Muslims themselves are at the receiving end of terrorism, and they themselves are fighting that fight. The media often interviews large Western organizations such as Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch, and not the Muslim human rights organizations. It reinforces the idea that it is only the Western world that upholds human rights values.

At the core of MPV’s work is to promote the implementation of progressive values, like human rights and gender equality, which are both deeply rooted in Islamic principles. In your view, how do such progressive and Islamic values intersect?

Islam is inherently progressive and rooted in social justice, which makes our work super easy! We are all created by the Creator (Verse 38:72: “So when I have evolved the fetus, and breathed into the fetus from My Spirit…”), and as simple as that, we are all created equal. The values of inclusivity, equality and justice are repeated numerous times in the Quran, and it is therefore very easy to debunk the basis for discrimination toward religious and sexual minorities.

In the 21st century, we are not following the Quran, but the interpretation of the Quran by scholars of Islam — i.e., men, who were pretty misogynistic and homophobic in their readings. For some strange reason, the majority of Muslims have been raised on this Kool-Aid, and it’s because it keeps its adherence on a straight line, stripped of our right to think and express freely, which is all about political control of your constituencies/citizens and nothing to do with faith.

Here are the glaring contradictions:

Muslims are taught we cannot convert out of Islam, while the Quran states: “There’s no compulsion in faith” (Q 2:256).

Muslims are taught we cannot read and decipher the Quran for ourselves because we are “not qualified,” while the Quran states: “The worst creatures with God are the deaf and dumb who do not reason” (8:22); “In their stories is a lesson for the people of intelligence. It is not a hadith that was invented, but an authentication of what is already present, a detailing of all things, and a guidance and mercy to a people who acknowledge” (12:111); “You shall not follow any information that you do not have knowledge about it. I have given you the hearing, the eyesight, and the brain, and you are responsible for using them” (17:36).

The Quran berates hypocrites and yet, our society is full of them and worst, we support them: “Do you order the people to do goodness, but forget yourselves, while you are reciting the book? Do you not reason?” (2:44).

We are told Islam is the third of the Abrahamic faith tradition, the latest and “updated,” and therefore better, whereas Verse 10:99 states: “If your Lord had so wished, everyone on earth would have believed, all of them together! So will you force mankind to become believers?”

Just sayin’!

MPV carries out grassroots activities through its local chapters in the U.S., and in Australia, Canada, Chile, France, and Malaysia. What does grassroots activism mean to you, and to Islam in general?

Because religious authorities and Muslim governments have an iron-fist hold on religion, as a Muslim, you are not free to practice your faith freely or to interpret it out of your own intellect. The definition of Islam is defined by the State, and it differs depending on the State. Therefore, our work is to educate the general public about various fundamental and problematic concepts of Islam through social media, bypassing religious authorities, governments, and parents.

The concepts we advocate for are very controversial, and what we advocate for depends on the country we work in. Some issues would just be too dangerous for our local partners to address. Some of the public educational content we produce addresses issues such as a) there is no punishment for leaving Islam, b) that you can marry non-Muslims without the non-Muslim forced into converting to Islam, c) that there is no punishment for apostasy and blasphemy, or d) that you are equal spirituals as a homosexual and transgender individual. We have had tremendous success bringing American Muslims to our side through our public education campaigns.

At a policy level, we also advocate for these issues at the United Nations and in the U.S. through partnerships with progressive American organizations as we counter the curtailing of abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights and especially trans rights, as an example.

MPV envisions a future where Islam is “understood as a source of dignity, justice, compassion and love for all humanity and the world.” From your POV, what needs to happen for Islam to reach this point of universal appreciation and understanding?

Muslims themselves need to purge of the Islam they were raised on and relearn it from scratch. Islam is not supposed to be a “new” and institutionalized religion, and the word “muslim,” meaning “believer,” is not supposed to be with a capital “M,” but a small “m,” meaning all faith traditions are equal. Of course, like all institutionalized religions, we are taught that our religion is superior over others. This is of course a lie.

You can learn more about Muslims for Progressive Values and its mission to advocate for human rights, social justice and inclusion in the U.S. and around the world via its website, MPVUSA.org, and on Instagram at @mpvusa.

For more on how JBC observes important cultural moments, see our MLK Day reading list.