Despite this, many Muslims continue to perceive yoga as fundamentally conflicting with their faith, given its religious and cultural origins. Even Mr. Rashid himself once believed that engaging in yoga practice was equivalent to “denouncing my religion,” although after immigrating in 1997 from Bahrain, he’s come full circle. He now practices daily yoga and courts controversy by suggesting that other Muslims do so.

He’s not alone. Imam Mohd A. Qayyoon, who runs the Muhammadi Community Center of Jackson Heights, joined an interfaith demonstration of yoga last summer, garnering instant disapproval from community members. Yet for Imam Qayyoon, yoga and Islam can be compatible—with the use of more conservative attire than is typically favored in yoga culture, and the exclusion of Sanskrit. With these reformations, he believes yoga’s popularity will jump among Muslims. “It will not contradict with Islamic religion,” he says.

Yoga instructor Mimi Borda runs one of the only yoga studios in Jackson Heights, and has had to accommodate the cultural needs of her students. After finding that chanting turned some Muslim students off, she’s tailored certain classes to omit the Sanskrit and emphasize instead the physical aspects of the practice. She’s also added both “shalom” and “amen” to the end of class.

Yet despite the optimism of Imam Qayyoon and Mr. Rashid, obstacles remain to obtaining widespread acceptance in Muslim communities. For new immigrants and those living in Muslim countries, yoga’s connection to Hinduism render it unequivocally sacrilegious, similar to how yoga practice is viewed in many fundamentalist Christian circles.

However, when Mr. Rashid eventually began practicing yoga, he noticed more similarities with his faith than differences. Muslims practice five-times daily prayers, entailing a deep meditative concentration and repeated kneeling bows. Salat, as these prayers are called, reflect echoes of yoga poses, according to Mr. Rashid, who notes “I discovered whatever I’m doing in yoga, I’m doing five times a day in prayer.” Following the daylong yoga class he helped organize in Jackson Heights last summer, he had the realization that in salat, many Muslims practice something very similar to yoga postures. Mr. Rashid comments, “Maybe they’re getting that same benefit in their prayers. Maybe they don’t need to do yoga.”

What are your thoughts on the co-existence of yoga practice with religious systems such as Islam and Christianity?

yaseen: ...

i like yoga

1

June 24, 2012