Tag: America

In the West, Islamic Religiosity believes that it must offer a political vision. This is an idea perpetuated not just by the politicos but also traditionalists like Abdal Hakim Murad. This explains why even sophisticated DC Muslims are waiting for the "third way." (Beyond Democrat and Republican; Beyond Labor and Tory). Keep waiting, guys. Need I remind you Nader lost? Need I remind you Galloway is, and always will be, just an MP?

This phenomenon occurs in the Muslim world as well, in a slightly different form, as pointed out by Sami Zubeidah in this article:

Islamic religiosity, under current conditions, almost invariably entails an ideological vision.

He's saying that in the Muslim world people think that Islam is a political force as well.

Note, please note, that my observation has to do with Muslims in the West. Zubeidah's observation has to do with Muslims in the Muslim world. We need to be more emphatic in making this distinction; not because the West and Muslim world are in a clash, but because Muslim people in the West live in pluralist and democratic societies; while Muslim people in the Muslim world live in homogenous and non-democratic societies. Those Muslim nations which are pluralist and democratic, do not have Muslims who try to assert Islam as a political force (Malaysia).

You know, when this site started out, we aimed to cover Islam globally. We still plan on doing that. However, this should not mean that I believe (I certainly don't), that how I think Muslims should organize themselves in America and UK is going to be in any way similar to how Muslims should organize themselves in dictatorial countries which 99% of the people are Muslim. More importantly, Muslims in the West need to realize that we are not going to be able to organize ourselves here the way Muslims in Muslim majority parts of the world do. Muslim in Muslim majority parts of the world can afford to sit there and try and fashion a "Muslim" political theory. We in the West need not do the same, and then try to convince DC think tanks to buy into the "Islamic vision of social justice." All we need to do is "social justice" and the only time we should assert its Islamic basis is when we're at the mosque.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't be proud of being a Muslim. One should take pride in having ethics. However, next time you want to chest thump about introducing "Islamic concepts" into "the politics of the de-spiritualized West", ask if you see any Christians doing the same. They don't. And the ones that do: everyone calls them nutjobs, hicks, or Christofascists. Ultimately, in a pluralist society, trying to get people to give a shout out to your religion just because it happens to share a vision of a just society with the mainstream discourse, does nothing more than affirm your identity. It is not an act of sovereignty. It is nothing more than empty pride. 

Being an American Muslim is not a political identity. Islam is a religion. It is an ethical tradition. It is a moral structure. One does not see deontologists claiming they are a political group; nor utilitarians. There is no such thing as "American Christians." Nor "American Hindus." Nor "American Jews." Nor American Buddhists." 

Why do American Muslims keep insisting there will be, or must be, an American Muslim political identity?

I'll tell you why: because to a very lage extent we have consented to let ourselves be lumped together. Yet, we are not alike. We don't have equal amounts of money. We don't like the same music. We don't like the same Qurans. We don't even like each other. So why are we lumped together? Not only that, why do we accept being lumped together? Not only that, but why do we keep insisting to lump ourselves together? (It's not like anything gets done).

The "American Muslim" political identity is externally imposed. One can be an American Muslim in terms of his faith. Not in terms of his politics.

Period. 

There is a horrifying report out about male rape in US prisons, produced by Human Rights Watch. This is only the preface:

I've been sentenced for a D.U.I. offense. My 3rd one. When I first came to prison, I had no idea what to expect. Certainly none of this. I'm a tall white male, who unfortunately has a small amount of feminine characteristics. And very shy. These characteristics have got me raped so many times I have no more feelings physically. I have been raped by up to 5 black men and two white men at a time. I've had knifes at my head and throat. I had fought and been beat so hard that I didn't ever think I'd see straight again. One time when I refused to enter a cell, I was brutally attacked by staff and taken to segragation though I had only wanted to prevent the same and worse by not locking up with my cell mate. There is no supervision after lockdown. I was given a conduct report. I explained to the hearing officer what the issue was. He told me that off the record, He suggests I find a man I would/could willingly have sex with to prevent these things from happening. I've requested protective custody only to be denied. It is not available here. He also said there was no where to run to, and it would be best for me to accept things . . . . I probably have AIDS now. I have great difficulty raising food to my mouth from shaking after nightmares or thinking to hard on all this . . . . I've laid down without physical fight to be sodomized. To prevent so much damage in struggles, ripping and tearing. Though in not fighting, it caused my heart and spirit to be raped as well. Something I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself for. 

Booman writes more on it as well as Shakes' Sister. I wanted to take a moment to talk about prisons and Islam.

My pops and I used to go to a prison becaue he used to work with some of the prisoners. I didn't like to talk much back then so I just hung out and listened. I learned quite a lot about how Islam gave the guys a lot of discipline and hope.

Then a couple of years ago one of my acquintances in Philly ended up in jail for drug possession. I found out later that he was praying five times a day on the inside and hanging out with the brother. Finding out that this ultra-player kid had turned so religious inside really made me wonder what was going on so I asked one of his friends and was told that hope and discipline aside, there was one simple reason to turn Muslim inside a prison: PROTECTION.

Note in the HRW report how the officer simply tells the raped prisoner to find someone who will protect him. When you hang out with the Muslims in prison, they will not rape you. I'm not sure how easy it is for a non-Muslim to gain entry to the Muslims, but someone who has some Muslim leanings, or knew a Muslim on the outside, its not that hard. And again, Muslims in prison might be all hardcore, but THEY DO NOT RAPE (and they don't let theirs be raped either). So, let's see, you got a prison system that is turning ablind eye to rape and violence, and you then you got a religion inside the prisons that protects you from those two evils. And people wonder about the spread of Islam in US prisons.

By the way, it is no wonder that the Islam that sells the best inside the prison is usually from the "tough" side of the Islam fence. Whirling Dervishes aren't going to inspire a lot of fear in potential rapists, I'm afraid.

Next time people talk about the spread of "militant Islam" in the US prisons, you have to make the link to male rape. 

Earlier I wrote a story about Imam Musa of DC. MyPetJawa, who had written the initial story about him, had linked to Imam Musa's My Space Page.

Well, that My Space Page has now been hijacked and turned into some kind of Pro-Israel page, with a pretty bigoted song playing in the background. There is even confirmation by the guy who stole Imam Musa's page in the comments section:

He was just deleted. I stole his URL. It is now a Pro-Israel page. Feel free to send friend requests.

:-)

Let's see what My Pet Jawa or anyone else on the right says about hijacking other people My Space Page. I do know that today Malkin was complaining about other people not respecting your property. My point is simple: even if you think that Imam Musa is advocated violence -- which his organization does not advocate -- it is not within your authority to shut his stuff down.

Update [2007-2-12 15:44:49 by Ali Eteraz]: Looks like Jawa's own videos have been shut down in the past and it upset them. 

Here's an IM for you read between Dawood and Yusuf ibn Yusuf on the politics of identity, (post)colonialism and modernity. A snippet:

[W]e need to see how colonialism actually impacted our method of learning our religion and understand why various groups sprung up in reference to it either synthesizing movements engaging modernity such as  Muhammad Abdhu who called for a reform and launched a change in the way Azhar carried out its education and we have Said Nursi who proposed a radical change in Islamic education combining the madrasa with the University with the Sufi lodge and he wanted to reform Sufism so what he envisioned was a school that taught morals the sciences and Islamic law.

Then there are others like Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahab who were non sysntesizers and saw reform as an internal matters – housecleaning. So for him reform needed to take place by reforming practice and belief and in the process he initiated a new approach to fiqh, aqeeda and spirituality etc. The same took place with the Deobandis the isolated themselves from modernity. We should not judge at this point we need to understand these efforts first. 

We have cultural artifcats to indicate to us the type of change that took place during the end of the Ottoman period.

The fiqhi work Mejelle {majala} of the Ottomans is an example of this effort waged to deal with modernity. The Mejelle was a codification of Islamic law in a way suitable to the demands of the Ottoman empire at the time Europe was emerging as a power or powers.  Later in Damascus we see that Mustafa Zarqa did something similiar so did Abu Zahra when they started to bridge a dialogue between Islamic Law and the established Western Legal Codes that were put in place in the Muslim world. Before them there was Sayyid Sabiq who set out to make fiqh accessible to the people given the language of fiqh become to technical and arcane for people.

Azhar made a huge change too they introduced the study of Shariah and constitional law which compared the various legal systems in addition to teaching the eight madhabs present in the Muslim world: Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi, Hanbali, Zahiri, Zaydi, Imami, Ibadi. We also have persons like Shah Wali Allah in Delhi  who waged a revival program and tried to address the decline experienced in the Muslim world, his synthesis of ideas happened just BEFORE colonialism started taking its toll after him his followers reacted to colonialism and from here the Deoband emerged. So we have all these people and efforts that emerged to deal with the changes taking place in the Muslim world and in Islamic education.

And here is an email/IM I shared with my fellow comrades on the Central Committee for a Greater Eterazistan and some of our sympathisers, in which I drew up a series of (admittedly simplistic) similarities between how Muslims and Americans themselves:

1. Both hold to an idea of "exceptionalism" for their own beliefs (Islam and her Ummah/the American nation).
2. Both see themselves as exemplars who can redeem humanity.
   
3. This means both think of themselves "outside" history.
4. And both consider their own beliefs to be "universal".
5. Both hold to a quasi-mythic opening to their history.
   
6. Both call the early part of their expansion "the opening" ("al-futuhat"/"the opening up of the west").
7. Both rely on the "founding fathers" concept of nation building (the Salaf/the Founding Fathers).
8. Both have a written document, to which all appeals (whether from the left/right wing or traditionalist/progressive in nature) can be made (the Qur'an/the Constitution). You cannot do without this document if you are a Muslim/American.
   
9. Medieval Muslim jurists' views on jihad can be seen as an Islamic form of the Monroe Doctrine.
10. Both are keen on an idea of "globalisation" (Muslims simply lack the power right now).

Now this is interesting:

The People's Mujahadeen - known as the PMOI - are labelled terrorists by the State Department. They were given sanctuary by Saddam Hussein in Iraq in Camp Ashraf - where they still are.

Newsnight has uncovered an extraordinary letter written after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 where Tehran offers to withdraw military backing for Hamas and Hezbollah as well as give open access to their nuclear facilities in return for Western action in disbanding the PMOI. Tim Whewell investigates this organistaion and whether they may be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations between Iran and Washington.

Despite being labelled terrorists, numerous Congresspersons across support the PMOI/MEK. Recently the MEK went all the way to the Supreme Court in order to get permission for fundraising. They lost. Here is the wiki entry on the Mujahideen e Khalq.

All I want to know is why didn't Bush et al make the deal? After all, why not deal with a legitimate nation-state (Iran), over a terrorist organization? What happened to the War on Terror?

Below, I am putting a timeline of the MEK.

Continue Reading 

This is one of my favorites from the old blog

The Great Jafi stepped through the door and said he was looking for Ali Eteraz. Somewhere in the world some murderers who called themselves Muslims had done some murdering and it was necessary to find Ali Eteraz to have him comment on the matter, since being a law abiding Muslim he knew everything about law breaking Muslims.

“Where is Ali Eteraz?” said the amazing Jafi. “Where is the one Muslim who knows moderation? Tell me, is the anomalous Ali around or should I leave? I don’t have much time. If he is not around I will be forced to find another moderate Muslim and that will be a very difficult task because Islam does not produce very many Muslim moderates. Does someone have Irshad Manji’s number?”

In his underwear because he was enjoying the company of a delicious white girl, Ali Eteraz came running to the Jafi. “Sir, I am here, a moderate at your service. I hope I have not kept you waiting.”

Continue reading...