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The Muslim News
Awards for Excellence

Annemarie Schimmel award for championing a Muslim cause

that you may come to know one another

Annemarie Schimmel, Professor of Indo-Muslim Culture at Harvard University, has enough honorary degrees, awards and publications (at least five, twenty six and eighty respectively) to keep an entire faculty going. But few people outside the cosseted walls of academia had heard of her until she spoke out against Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses.

Millions of Muslims, precious few of them academics of any distinction, had debated, argued, and protested that the book, published in 1989, was a highly offensive slur on the religion of Islam. But the bastions of Western liberalism, the media, the arts and the seats of learning, were adamant that freedom of expression was paramount, and that responsibility of expression was a secondary consideration. And then the talented historian and polylingual Professor Schimmel, entered the debate.

By doing so, by insisting that Muslims (not just a few, but the entire body of Islam and its beloved Prophet, in particular) were the victims of a carefully devised piece of literature, Professor Schimmel effectively took on the establishment. Her position, based on years of expertise in Islamic literature and history (she is an authority on Rumi and translated part of Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddima into German), was authoritative and unwavering. She challenged many misconceptions of Islam as well as broaching greater understanding between Muslims and Christians.

Muslims, for political reasons, or for financial or family considerations, are often reluctant to assert their faith. Too few of us put our reputation on the line for issues our non-Muslim peers may consider to be subjective, personal and outdated. Which is why when a Muslim cause is defended or championed, the rest of the world sits up and takes note, our sense of self-worth is restored, and we resolve to try harder.

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