Who Speaks for Islam?

Today’s blog is a revision of a paper I wrote which analyzed the issues raised in Who Speaks for Islam using the tools articulated for such analysis in Moral Understandings.  Who Speaks for Islam is a report of a Gallup poll of approximately 90% of the world’s Muslim population.  It is a must read for all Americans.  I would love to say more on this…if you’re interested I can do a multi-part series analyzing the issues in deeper detail, just say the word.

Stereotyping of Muslim men and women which conceals their true personhood is accomplished by covert government operations to “protect” Westerners and Muslim women from allegedly Muslim “traits” of religious fundamentalism and sexism.  The United States government has participated in coups in the Middle East which have ousted democratically elected leaders whose political and religious views were not in alignment with American interests. Privatization is facilitated by the assumption that issues of “national security” require secrecy, which allows our government to intimidate and terrorize other nations without our awareness. As pointed out repeatedly in Who Speaks for Islam, such control by the U.S. results in increased extremism in Muslim countries.

This extremism has taken the form of terrorist tactics such as suicide bombings.  The “normal” response to these actions is military retaliation. “When practices that would otherwise look bad are rendered normal in these ways for certain contexts or people in them, those who rebel against what “everyone” accepts appear as irrational freaks, malcontents, unstable deviants” or terrorists (Walker 2007 p. 182).  We mistakenly view suicide bombings as acts of unprovoked aggression. 

Western refusal give credence to the stories of Muslims seals off “recognizable injuries and credible complaints” (Walker 2007182).  Maintained by restriction of information to U.S. citizens, the stereotypes garner our support for war against Islamic nations.  Americans are kept uninformed about the realities and complexities of the Muslim world or the consequences to Muslims and support these actions out of ignorance.

Stereotypes lead to “The rise of religious fundamentalisms in conjunction with conservative nationalisms, which are also in part reactions to global capital and its cultural demands,” which “has led to the policing of women’s bodies in the streets and in the workplaces” (Mohanty, 2003).   Esposito and Mogahed clarify that fundamentalist oppression of women is worsened by American attempts to control Muslim nations.  Oppression of women under Muslim rule is used as justification for American military aggression.  The US government is fueling the very behaviors it is using as an excuse to engage in military action; this may be intentional. 

Muslim women prioritize economic development and political stability over gender issues (Esposito and Mogahed 2007, 133).  They would like us to stop killing their brothers, husbands, fathers and most of all their children.  Creating space for truth telling would be a welcome step toward the healing the discord between Muslims and Westerners. It would allow Westerner’s to learn how to support Muslim women by using the tools inherent within the framework of their religious views, which are of utmost importance to them.

Religion has been usurped by the state, but nonetheless provides compelling mandates against greed and corruption.  Perhaps that is the primary reason that power holders are so eager to appropriate religion for themselves. This tendency is seen not only in the Muslim faith, but in the Christian faith as well.  Analyzing the process of this appropriation of meaning in the context of oppression using Walker’s tools has helped me to articulate what I have previously only been able to grasp intuitively.  As I said above, I can say a loooot more on this…just say the word!

REFERENCES

Esposito, J. and Mogahed, D. 2007. Who Speaks for Islam?  What a Billion Muslims Really Think. New York: Gallup Press.

Mahmood, Saba. “Feminism, Democracy, and Empire: Islam and the War of Terror” in Women’s Studies on the Edge, editied by Joan Wallach Scott, 81-114. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2008.

Mohanty, C. 2003. “Under Western Eyes” Revisited: Feminist Solidarity through Anticapitalist Struggles. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 28, no. 2 (Winter, 2003): 499-535.

Walker, Margaret Urban. (2007).  Moral Understandings: A Feminist Study in Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press.