veiled4allah

Islam in the African-American experience

I've just finished reading Islam in the African-American Experience by Richard Brent Turner. I also read the first part of Black Pilgrimage to Islam by Robert Dannin. Turner's book is an essential resource for anyone who wants to learn about Islam and African-Americans. It traces the history of Muslims who were brought from Africa to America in slavery and then the modern development of Islam among African-Americans as part of pan-African and pan-Islamic movements. Dannin's book has two parts, the first a general history and the second a series of conversion stories and experiences of African-American Muslims. The historical part serves as a useful supplement to Turner's book. Dannin's book is focused on African-Americans who follow orthodox Islam and he provides a history of this movement that Turner's book largely ignores. Dannin also examines the history of African-American Freemason groups in the late 1700s and the 1800s as a sort of transitional phase, an early alternative for "unchurched" blacks with some Islamic elements. This topic is not even covered in Turner's book but it fills in the gap between the stories of Muslim slaves and the pan-African movements starting in the late 1800s. Additionally, Turner has certain theses that he wants to prove and at times this seems to affect his interpretation of the material he's presenting. Dannin offers a different perspective. Some useful online resources include Early Black Nationalist Movements and Black Power, A Brief Look at the Roots and Development of the Nation of Islam, Islam, a Traditional and Growing Spiritual Point for African-Americans, Religious Movements: Nation of Islam, East of the Sun, West of the Moon, Black Gods of the Inner City, Islam in the Mix: Lessons of the Five Percent, Island in a Sea of Ignorance (by Dannin), and Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas. Some contemporary issues are discussed in Are gangs and prisons breeding grounds for al-Qa'ida?, Jihadis in the Hood: Race, Urban Islam, and the War on Terror, and Rural Muslims Draw New, Unwanted Attention. A comparison of these movements to the Black Jews (see also here) would also be instructive.

progressive Muslims

Progressive Muslims, edited by Omid Safi, is a collection of fourteen essays by self-identified progressive Muslims. The essays cover three broad topics: contemporary Islam, gender justice, and pluralism. The authors have different and sometimes clashing views about Islam and about what a progressive Muslim is. The first essay is "The Ugly Modern and the Modern Ugly: Reclaiming the Beautiful in Islam" by Khaled Abou El Fadl. Abou El Fadl is a scholar well-versed in traditional Islam and he takes a somewhat more skeptical view than many of the other authors about some modernist movements within Islam. As I noted in my Field Guide to Islamic Activists, modernists share some basic ideas and principles with more fundamentalist groups like the Wahhabis - it's their interpretation that differs. Both groups are different from and often opposed to traditionalists in these ideas and princples and that seems to be the reason for Abou El Fadl's skepticism. If Abou El Fadl is a traditionalist, why is he in a volume about progressive Muslims? I didn't realize myself that he took traditionalist views; he's famous (notorious in some circles) for his outspoken liberal critiques of Islamic fundamentalism. Abou El Fadl aims to rediscover liberal views from within the richness of the Islamic tradition of scholarship. If anything, I tend to fall into this camp myself, which is why it's surprising that I didn't like Abou El Fadl's essay more than I did. It struck me that he spent more time criticizing than offering constructive solutions. Anybody can criticize; it's the solutions that we need. The second essay is "In Search of Progressive Islam Beyond 9/11" by Farid Esack. This essay stands in sharp contrast to the previous one. Esack takes a frankly Marxist perspective. He sees liberal Islam and Progressive Islam as two different things, and liberal Muslims and progressive Muslims as two different groups. And he doesn't think much of liberal Muslims, he sees them as taking an apologetic tone when they should be joining the struggle for economic and social justice against imperialism and capitalism. Liberal Muslims are what many in America want to see. If you're looking for that too, Farid Esack is not your man. The third essay is "Islam: A Civilizational Project in Progress" by Ahmet Karamustafa. This essay looks at Islam as a religion, a culture, and a civilization, and argues that Islam is best understood as a civilization. This essay is much less provocative than the preceding two. It's more in the way of offering an intellectual framework on which progressive ideals can be hung. The fourth essay is "The Debts and Burdens of Critical Islam" by Ebrahim Moosa. This essay takes the most modernist view of all the essays so far; the author chose the title phrase "critical Islam" deliberately. While I feel that Moosa has some useful insights to share, I don't take his viewpoint. The fifth essay is "On Being a Scholar of Islam: Risks and Responsibilities" by Tazim R. Kassam. It's really about the often difficult position scholars of Islam, both Muslim and non-Muslim, have found themselves in since 9/11 and the challenges that they face in explaining Islam in an honest are responsible manner to often hostile audiences. This concludes the section on progressive Muslims and contemporary Islam. The next set of essays is on gender justice. The sixth essay is "Transforming Feminism: Islam, Women, and Gender Justice" by Sa'diyya Shaikh. Shaikh criticizes Western feminism for too often engaging in a cultural imperialism of its own and introduces readers to "Third World feminism", which she feels is a better context for understanding and developing Islamic feminism. The seventh essay is "Progressive Muslims and Islamic Jurisprudence: The Necessity for Critical Engagement with Marriage and Divorce Law" by Kecia Ali. The essay criticizes some well-known liberal Muslim scholars and Muslim feminists for failing to fully escape patriarchal concepts and interpretations from traditional scholarship. The essay is particularly interesting for her survey and examination of Islamic legal texts from the 800s C.E. and what they say about some issues in marriage and divorce law. For instance, the Hanafi legal school is generally considered the most liberal but it has some very conservative and often rigid positions, while the Hanbali school is generally considered the most conservative yet it is the only one of the four schools that would allow the integration of one of the key reforms urged by Muslim feminists. Ali does not agree with the traditionalist views but points out that feminists will not get very far in implementing their reforms if they can't address and respond to the issues raised by traditionalists. The eighth essay is "Sexuality, Diversity and Ethics in the Agenda of Progressive Muslims" by Scott Siraj al-Haqq Kugle. This will be by far the most controversial essay in the book because it deals with homosexuality and presents Kugle's re-interpretation of Islamic sources in a gay-positive manner. Kugle does present some useful material from classical sources about the story of the prophet Lot, which most Muslims give a very narrow and superficial interpretation of, and he raises some good points, but his juridical arguments are weak and footnote 58 betrays such a gross ignorance of the history of Islamic jurisprudence that I would suggest that Kugle go back to school. Basically, Kugle suffers from the same problem that Kecia Ali was discussing in the previous essay: his interpretation is not likely to be convincing to anybody who is not already predisposed to it because it fails to engage the long tradition of Islamic jurisprudence. The ninth essay is "Are We Up to the Challenge? The Need for a Radical Re-Ordering of the Islamic Discourse on Women" by Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons. Simmons writes from a radical feminist Sufi perspective and also relates her views to her experiences as part of the civil rights movement in the late 1960s. One thing that may turn readers off is how Simmons apparently compares the experience of Muslim women everywhere to the Jim Crow South - even Muslim women in America. By failing to acknowledge the great variety and diversity of Muslim women's experience, she risks trivializing some very serious problems, such as in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and certain other countries. A more nuanced discussion would serve her cause better. This concludes the section on progressive Muslims and gender justice. The last set of essays is on pluralism. The tenth essay is "Muslims, Pluralism, and Interfaith Dialogue" by Amir Hussain. This is an excellent introduction to the basis within the Islamic tradition for pluralism and dialogue. Hussain also discusses some problems on the other end: intolerance from Christians and Jews that has in some cases impeded interfaith dialogue. The eleventh essay is "American Muslim Identity: Race and Ethnicity in Progressive Islam" by Amina Wadud. Wadud, who is African-American, discusses the difficulties between the immigrant Muslim communities and the indigenous African-American Muslim community. This is a topic that I touched on previously and it is an ongoing serious concern. Two of the books on my reading list deal specifically with the African-American experience of Islam so that I can better understand this problem and join in the search for solutions (my own group, European-American or white Muslims, is so much smaller than the other groups as to be insignificant and there is certainly no "community" of such Muslims). The twelfth essay is "Islamic Democracy and Pluralism" by Ahmad S. Moussalli. Moussalli looks at various Islamist movements in the Muslim world today and distinguishes between moderate Islamists, who strongly support consultative forms of government (shura), and radical Islamists, who tend to favor authoritarian forms of government. Moussalli encourages the West to work with the moderate Islamists rather than treating them as though they were the same as the radical Islamists; cracking down on them will only radicalize them and other Muslims. The thirteenth essay is "How to Put the Genie Back in the Bottle? 'Identity' Islam and Muslim Youth Cultures in America" by Marcia Hermansen. Hermansen looks at a growing trend among young American Muslims to treat Islam as a way of asserting an independent identity rather than as a moral and spiritual system, and how this trend can lead to very narrow interpretations of Islam. Hermansen also notes that to a certain extent it's inevitable that teenagers will pass through these phases and that what is really needed is leadership from adults that will guide them through this stage and on to a more mature understanding of Islam. The fourteenth and last essay is "What is the Victory of Islam? Towards a Different Understanding of the Umma and Political Success in the Contemporary World" by Farish A. Noor. Noor criticizes the tendency, by both Muslims and non-Muslims, towards what he calls "oppositional dialectics", that is, an "us vs. them" mindset. He sees this as the basic problem that limits or prevents dialogue and understanding. He calls for an "Islam without borders". Muslims cannot be concerned only with issues that affect the Muslim community, they need to become actively involved in all movements for social justice and for peace and work together with other people of conscience. This last essay is in many ways the most similar to "To Be A European Muslim" and is an excellent way to close the book. Overall, "To Be A European Muslim" clicked with me in a way that this book didn't, probably because it was the work of a single author and long enough to allow a thorough discussion and exploration of the issues. I don't agree with all of the views expressed in "Progressive Muslims" or with all interpretations of Islam that are proposed there. Nonetheless, it was well worth reading and I learned a lot. I recommend this book to anybody who would like to learn more about the different trends for reform within Islam. Next on the reading list: Islam in the African-American Experience

to be a Muslim in the West

I've finished reading To be a European Muslim by Tariq Ramadan. Despite the title, this book is not specifically about Muslims in Europe. It applies to any Muslim living in a predominately non-Muslim country, especially a Western country. This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. Ramadan is a man of deep faith and thorough knowledge of Islam. More than that, his understanding and views are essentially the same as my own, about what the problems are and about what the solutions need to be. This book has my highest recommendation. The first part of the book provides a brief overview of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), its sources, history, and methodology. The second part of the book then builds on this to offer solutions to problems faced and generated by Muslims living in the West that are fiqh-based and therefore wholly Islamic. To benefit most fully from this book, it helps to have some knowledge of Islamic terminology and concepts, as they are used and discussed extensively. In my opinion, every Muslim living in the West ought to read this book. Next on the reading list: Progressive Muslims

in search of a Muslim-American identity

In line with the reading list I posted yesterday is In Search of a Muslim-American Identity. This essay cites one of the books on my list, Black Pilgrimage to Islam and addresses some themes that are explored in more depth in that book and in Islam in the African-American Experience about Islam as a way for African-Americans to reclaim an identity that is independent of the one that was forced on them by slavery. The article also looks at the immigrant-based communities, which have their own identity issues. This topic is covered in To be a European Muslim, although the scope of the book goes far beyond that.

reading list

To be a European Muslim, by Tariq Ramadan Progressive Muslims, edited by Omid Safi Islam in the African-American Experience, by Richard Brent Turner Black Pilgrimage to Islam, by Robert Dannin The links are to Amazon.com but I got my copies on loan from the Seattle Public Library. Inshallah, I'll post something about each of the books as I read it.

Chinese gleams of Muslim light

One of the mysteries that continues to puzzle historians is why, at the height of its global power and influence in the 1400s, China chose to turn inwards and away from the rest of the world. Nicholas Kristof provides a good overview of this question in 1492: The Prequel. Kristof gives a great deal of attention to the great fleet of the Chinese admiral, Zheng He. A good profile of Zheng He is Admiral of the Western Seas. One historian argues that Zheng He reached America 72 years before Columbus did. An interesting fact about Zheng He is that he was a Muslim. This aspect of his story is given prominence in Zheng He: The Chinese Muslim Admiral. Muslims have been in China since at least the 700s C.E. and there are approximately 20 million Muslims in China today. Historical Sketch of the Hui Muslims of China provides some information. Many Chinese Muslims are from the Xinjiang province. As its former name of Eastern or Chinese Turkestan indicates, Xinjiang is closely related to the Central Asian republics such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. The major ethnic group are the Uighurs. Xinjiang did not come under effective control of China until 1949, and has been struggling since then for independence. As Human Rights Watch reports:

Much like Tibetans, the Uighurs in Xinjiang, have struggled for cultural survival in the face of a government-supported influx by Chinese migrants, as well as harsh repression of political dissent and any expression, however lawful or peaceful, of their distinct identity. Some have also resorted to violence in a struggle for independence Chinese authorities have not discriminated between peaceful and violent dissent, however, and their fight against "separatism" and "religious extremism" has been used to justify widespread and systematic human rights violations against Uighurs, including many involved in non-violent political, religious, and cultural activities.

Additional reports on China's repression in Xinjiang and of Chinese Muslims are Strangers in Their Own Land and Muslims refuse to be pushed out of Beijing. Added: You can also read about the plight of Uighurs in neighboring Kyrgyzstan. On a brighter note, you can read about Sufi orders in China. Japanese Muslim author Sachiko Murata has written Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light, a translation of two Chinese Sufi books and an examination of their historical and religious context.

Islam in the Digital Age

Yesterday while checking Technorati to see who's linking to me, I found a new blog called Virtually Islamic by Gary Bunt, a lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Wales Lampeter. It turns out that Gary has just published a book called Islam in the Digital Age, which looks at Muslims and Islam on the internet in the post-9/11 world. He sent me an email today to tell me about his site and book. He also says that he is going to mention my blog in an upcoming publication. I notice the sidebar of his blog describes veiled4allah as "a lively and informative blog". All praise is due to Allah for any good in what I've written or that comes from it. Getting past my vanity, I do encourage you to check out Gary's site and blog. I look forward to seeing what he has to say.

east of the sun, west of the moon

East of the Sun (West of the Moon): Islam, the Ahmadis, and African America is a fascinating article. Ahmadis are a religious movement that grew out of Islam in India. Like the Nation of Islam, Ahmadiyya's founder claimed to be a new prophet from God. Both groups also have theologies that most Muslims consider heretical. "Heretical" is a judgmental term; nonetheless, the belief systems of both groups diverge significantly from orthodox Islam and should not be confused with it. The article "East of the Sun" talks about Ahmadi missionizing in America in the 1920s and 1930s and its success among African-Americans. I had not heard of this before, but came across the article while researching the history of Islam among African-Americans. As the article itself argues, it gives a new perspective on what Islam has meant and continues to mean for blacks in America.

on my bookshelf

I got two non-fiction books while I was on my trip. The first is The Heart of Islam by Seyyed Hossein Nasr. This book provides an excellent overview of Islam and the meaning of its teachings in regard to such issues as relations with non-Muslims, family and society, the Shari'a, and jihad. He also discusses the diversity of the Muslim world. Nasr wrote it in the wake of 9/11 for the express purpose of spreading knowledge about Islam. The second book is Indians in American History. I found this to be an excellent book as well. It provides an overview of the history of Native Americans and their interactions with European colonists and with the United States. For law nerds like me, there are also sections about the status of Indian tribes in U.S. law. Some of it is very depressing because the U.S. has a pretty shameful history in regard to the treatment of Native Americans. I bought this book because I became interested in the history of Native Americans in the regions where we visited on our trip and I wanted a good overview.

sounds like an interesting book

Antiterrorism's Lengthly History and Current Abuses: A Review of "Terrorism and the Constitution". This is a review of the book Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security. The first edition of this book came out in 1999 and was about anti-terrorism legislation by the Clinton Administration. The second edition looks at the post-9/11 situation.