To Mufti or Not? Lessons from Australia

Published: July 20, 2007, 10:30 pm

Several years ago, as I was touring Istanbul, I took to performing my daily prayers at the Blue Mosque. During several visits I noticed an expensive dark blue Mercedes saloon, parked ostentatiously in the gardens of the masjid, and guarded by a machine gun armed solider. When I asked him who the car belonged to he replied, “Allahhu akbar”, raised his hands to his ears, and pointed to the imam coming down the steps. Clearly there were both threats and blandishments in ascending the minbar at Turkey’s most famous mosque. In the old city, our hotel sat adjacent to a madrassa where young children were taught Qur’an and Tajweed by a group of very kindly old sheikhs. After Fajr, one of the boys would take turns to lead the Salat and afterwards he would recite a long chapter of the Qur’an until the sun came up.The other boys would fall asleep at the back; the Sheikhs always pretended not to notice. Unlike the Blue Mosque, the madrassa, an engine room for Islam,

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