After spending nearly an entire academic year away from Professopatra, I am returning to my regular updates. This past year has been quite difficult for me starting my PhD and the sudden death of my beloved father in January, but I am determined as ever to return to my world here at Professopatra.
x
Lt. Col. Malalai Kakar
Martyred during Ramadan, 28 September 2008/1429 A.H.
On Sunday morning, Lt. Col. Malalai Kakar, the highest-ranking policewoman in Afghanistan was martyred in Kandahar. Mrs Kakar was a champion of women in Afghanistan and an example for women around the world as she worked tirelessly to combat drugs and the abuse of women and children. She fought for what was Islamic and what was true and right, not what the religious authorities or the Taliban decreed. She was for us who knew of her work and her jihad, one of the many women of Khadijah’s Jihad.
I never had the opportunity to meet Mrs Kakar, but through friends who knew her, I feel blessed. To only be separated by a thread, despite there being an ocean and a continent between us, brings some comfort as she joins the ranks of the remarkable women who we will never truly know, but who we will always love and admire for their grace, dignity, and the courage with which they stood before their assassins. May she find her rightful place in Paradise and may her murderers find their rightful place in the wrath of G-d.
Make right for me my faith,
which is the foundation of my life.
Make right for me the world in which I live.
Make right for me the eternal home to which I will return.
(The Holy Qur’an)
(Originally written for Jemima Jerome)
Perhaps the most vile tactic that was undertaken by the certain elements in American Society during this election season was the distribution of over 20 million copies of a documentary entitled Obsession, Radical Islam’s War Against the West. The documentary, featuring interviews with a former PLO terrorist, leader of the Hitler Youth, and various Arab, Zionist, and American intellectuals as well as footage taken from various parts of the Islamic world, aims to demonstrate the threat of radical Islam to the United States. The film is being distributed in newspapers and mailboxes in swing states in an effort by the right wing to sway undecided voters to vote in favour of a Republican presidency.
Perhaps this is what is so troubling about this dispersion of free DVDs is not so much that they are propaganda, in fact it is some of the best propaganda on the Islamic World I have ever seen, but that it is utilising fearmongering and preying upon Americans’ ignorance of Islam and the dynamic of Islam in the world that is so troubling. Suddenly neighbours and friends are cast as enemies, the only “good” Muslims are those who publically denounce (or renounce in some instances) terrorism, who have converted to Christianity (and thus are heroes for being apostates), or who are atheists (because they represent no threat at all). The average American’s education about Islam comes from media channels such as FoxNews and other popular media where terms like “Shi’a,” “Sunni,” and “Islamist” are part of the newsroom jargon, however misconstrued they are in that particular vernacular. I’m not even sure that the average American could tell the difference between an “Islamist” and a “Muslim” as they are two distinct entities. Not every Muslim is an Islamist, and certainly not every Islamist is a Muslim, but that’s a debate best held in another forum, no doubt the Salafis would like to sink their teeth into that issue of semantics.
In providing Americans with this film, the producers are not only contributing to the dumbing of America, but they are also facilitating America’s isolation in the world at a time where it needs to be restoring its rather tarnished image, especially in the Islamic World. The producers however obviously think that they are educating the illiterate masses on the dangers of an “Islamic” empire, when in fact I think they are doing a spectacular job of laying the groundwork for another attack and giving al-Qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah, et al all of the Eid goodies they could ever want with the free re-broadcast of their ideologies, propaganda, and footage. Free advertising! Does it get any better? No way! I was scared watching it and then I realised that by being scared, by giving into the Wizard of Oz effect of the soundbites and clips, I was giving-in to both the criminal minds of this radical Islam as well as to the forces who would like me to think that impending doom is near.
The threat of militant Islam and terrorism is a very real and tangible one, but it is not a new phenomena. It is scary, it is terrifying, but the fearmongering and the warmongering will only go so far and have so much impact on us and on them. If you look closely at the footage, you will realise that the scenes are from countries with populations that are reacting to imperial rule, to colonial legacies left by Western Europe (England, France, Italy), to war, and to poverty. These are people who have returned to the one constant in their lives throughout their national and ethnic histories and that is religion. To many in the Islamic World, jihad is a last resort, a way in which to perform their Exodus from Pharoah’s grip whether that be manifest in an occupying force, imperialism, colonialism, despotic rule, genocide, etc. Jihad is not the “natural” or primary reaction of the Islamic World, but it appears to have become that way because of globalisation, modernity, shifting economies, and the widening gap between rich and poor. The cries of people: Palestinians, Afghans, Algerians are duly ignored by the West and desperate for vindication, they turn to charismatic leaders and they turn to religion to seek justice. These themes should not be unfamiliar to a population who only abolished slavery 140 years ago, but apparently the American tradition of maintaining a selective and exclusive history remains the one constant of American culture.
See the film. Watch it. Make decisions for yourself and be on the frontlines of the Conservative War Against America as they continue to participate in underhanded propaganda to prey on the fear and cultural ignorance of the American population. They put us in danger of forcing us to continue to piggyback on Zionism (note: I say ZIONISM), the favourite rhetoric of radical Islamism, and by keeping us ignorant of the needs of a people who we have more in common with than difference. They prevent us from working on development projects, working with the Islamic World, and utilising proactive materials to combat terror. Americans are not interested in giving violent Islamists a hall pass, but we should be interested in understanding our foes, not fearing them.
American journalist, Dorothy Thompson, who was the first American journalist expelled from Nazi Germany, once wrote, “Fear grows in darkness; if you think there’s a bogeyman around, turn on the light.” Turn on the light America, the bogeyman is around, but when we understand the nuances of his mythology, the contours of his shadow and why he comes at night, we can turn off the light and the he will come no more.
X-Posted at Jemima Jerome
Veiled Athletes Challenge Stereotypes in Beijing
When I was a teenager, I would often have summer visits to London. One summer we were traveling during the Olympic Games and in the London Times there was a photograph of an Iranian woman wearing chador on the Iranian National Archery Team. I saved the picture because I was so amazed by the seeming contradictions that the picture evoked. I have since lost the clipping, but I still remember it and conjure it whenever I read these sorts of articles about veiled women and remember my own feelings about the novelty of Muslim women athletes. Nowadays however, I’m more amazed by women, Muslim women included, who rise above the adversity of war, religion, and poverty to the Olympic Games. The veil? That’s secondary. The struggle? That’s primary and worth every Gold medal there is to be won.
Yemen Divided on Vice and Virtue (Policing)
Here we go again. You cannot legislate religiosity! How many times are we going to go through this before people realise that the entire notion of, “I can’t have it, thus I want it more” is a universal phenomena.
Al-Qaeda Faces Islamist Backlash
Thank G*d. Someone finally grew a brain and realised that moderation, scholarship and appropriate dialogue are the ways to get attention and make change. I wish someone had figured this out seven years ago.
Before I start tonight’s Cluecake News, I have to give a special shout-out to Marmie and Baba because today is their 40th Anniversary! Wszystkiego najlepszego!!! xxx
The greatest quote from the above piece is this:
“To make this woman march means to openly declare war to our religious values. Whoever is responsible for this unforgivable act, he should know that this gesture constitutes an obstacle for the ‘appearance’ of Mahdi.”
Grow-up and grow a brain and then maybe the Mahdi will come, and stop throwing-out these random rulings that are based-upon G*d knows what fragment of history, but certainly not upon anything in the Qur’an.
MediaBistro: What’s Wrong with a Novel About Muhammad’s Wife?
Although this text is sort of lacking in the technicalities of why the book is offensive to Muslims, it does bring-up some very interesting points and questions about the chain of events that led to the swirl of controversy this weekend. Incidentally, author Sherry Jones has made her blog “invitation-only” which to be quite honest, I do not blame her at all. Poor love, she’s been raked across the coals together with Spellberg who is a heavier hitter than Jones, primarily due to her expertise and intellectual caliber and she was not ready for the onslaught that would happen in the wake of Asra Nomani’s editorial. Incidentally, you can read Professor Spellberg’s response and letter to the Wall Street Journal here.
