Apparently it's not just being "Middle Eastern" that would mean you are fucked wherever you go, from the west all the way to down under,
It's also being Muslim.
I had an interesting conversation at work, while the Internet was down - again, with a half-British, half-Swedish woman, married to an Egyptian.
She's Muslim, and lives here for a while so her kids would learn Arabic. She is veiled, so the inevitable question that I asked her, was how she gets treated in Sweden.
She told me she, and many of her Muslim but non-Arab women she knows, only get veiled in the Arab world, when they go to their countries - being it US, Sweden or wherever - they take it off.
The woman is as white as anyone could be, blue eyes, blonde eyebrows (a true sign of being a true blonde), the few hairs you do get to see are ash blonde, yet she's still not comfortable enough to walk with her veil.
So basically, you are veiled --> you're fucked, you look "Arab"--> You're in quite a pickle, you ARE Arab --> you're fucked!
Despite of all that, I still maintain that the Muslims/Arabs brought all of this on them, and it's like 90% their fault.
It's also being Muslim.
I had an interesting conversation at work, while the Internet was down - again, with a half-British, half-Swedish woman, married to an Egyptian.
She's Muslim, and lives here for a while so her kids would learn Arabic. She is veiled, so the inevitable question that I asked her, was how she gets treated in Sweden.
She told me she, and many of her Muslim but non-Arab women she knows, only get veiled in the Arab world, when they go to their countries - being it US, Sweden or wherever - they take it off.
The woman is as white as anyone could be, blue eyes, blonde eyebrows (a true sign of being a true blonde), the few hairs you do get to see are ash blonde, yet she's still not comfortable enough to walk with her veil.
So basically, you are veiled --> you're fucked, you look "Arab"--> You're in quite a pickle, you ARE Arab --> you're fucked!
Despite of all that, I still maintain that the Muslims/Arabs brought all of this on them, and it's like 90% their fault.
posted by Superluli at
11:07 AM
19 Comments:
but don't forgot that more than 90% of the muslim arabs didn't bomb themselfs or are from alqaida!
but it's the ignorant mindsets of those 90% who allowed those 10% to form, and to be so publicized. and those 90% are not trying to prevent it in the future and are not succeeding at controlling those 10%!
i 90% miss you and 10% miss shady.
hahahaha. Wahashtiny Awy : )
This is a bit off topic, but I always wondered if this will lead Islam to a "reformation" of sorts.
During the dark ages, the Catholic Church in Europe was stifling progress and eventually people broke away and developed a new Christianity that was more in line with their hearts. The Jews did the same thing, as some were turned off to the Orthodox beliefs.
Islam hasnt gone through such a transformation yet, I wonder if this rift between Islam and the West will cause a rift within Islam itself.
the problem with many Muslim communities? putting too many men in charge.
I second that.
And luli darling, I have an inkling that any trouble that you may encounter in this wild world will likely be self-imposed.
Oh. And I also agree with Kaitlin.
Holly and Kait, you're sweet, can’t wait to see you!
Trent, Islam will definitely go through this reformation phase. The problem is that up until the 11th century there were constant studies about the qoran and different interpretations to apply it better to the world. In the 11th century the Muslim heads decided it was too many interpretations and they were afraid it would become more like Christianity, with all the different sects.
So since then they have stopped all new interpretations and studies.
As civilization grows and knowledge and mental ability grows, more could be understood and better applied from the qoran making it a more "practical" religion in our time. This has not happened since the 11 century - so we are applying the Islam that was in the 11th century and we have some forces that want us to apply that Islam of the days of the Prophet, clearly a misled approach!
There has been a few individual approaches though that are worth mentioning, Gamal El Bana, who is the brother or Hassan El Bana (founder of the at-the-time peaceful Muslim brotherhood)
He is very different from his brother, gamal has been educated in foreign schools, and has a different more progressive approach. However it is not widespread by the mass, only by the well educated progressive people who are interested in Religion (a small minority) His website is on my "Cool Blogs" list called gamal el bana foundation.
There are his books in Arabic and in English.
Among his ideology is that Islam is a religion for the people not for the state, and the Veil is not something required by Muslim women, it was required for the wives of the prophet only since they needed to be distinguished from other women at the time - so people would give them the necessary respect. He provides proof for all his explanations.
Check it out if you are interested.
luli,
the approach of Islam for people instead institution is quite mainstream in Indonesia.
http://islamlib.com/en/ is a website by the young scholars of largest Muslim organization in Indonesia, Nahdlatul Ulama, which at 45 million strong, is the largest single Muslim organization in the world; they push the practice of Ijtihad even further.
Most of these scholars are homegrown (educated in Indonesia) and some attended Al-Azhar.
and the majority of NU supporters come from villages and the poor. At least in Indonesia, pluralistic Islam is not limited to the elites (and there's no reason to)
i was talking more about the status quo in egypt
islam and reform??!!! it is the first time i am hearing such a thing in islam.
first about the women it is just how u can be strong to affront people in the foreing countries. i am a muslim and i am putting my veil and i am travelling with it. i am currently doing an internship in budapest and i don't think that the look of people will make me take it off.
second, for me and i guess for all th muslims. Islam is religion that is full and that is appropriate for anytime and any age, that's one of the things u learn in isla "alislam dinoune salihoune likouli zamanine wa makane". what islam needs is not to reform it but that muslims understand it better and learn how to live it.islam is a religion that is given like this so either u take it not. but don't take some of it and what's left u say that we need a reform to change it. but to say that the interpretations r different no. there's 3 main sources for islam rules: quran, souna and ijema3. the first two ther's no change. we have one qoran and souna there's books that r authentic and reliable for suna. for the last one, there can be different points of view since it is the door that islam opened for people to cope with anything new and needs that all the community will agree on how to deal with it.
Zaineb,
"what islam needs is not to reform it but that muslims understand it better and learn how to live it"
and Muslims understand it better *differently* and live it *differently*.
I think when Islam and Reform being mentioned, it's specific to the Ummah, not the religion itself.
What I'm observing is there's a revival of opening more varied Islamic School of Thoughts just like the Golden Age of Baghdad before the studies stopped.
The practice of Islam is already quite pluralistic and diverse especially outside the Middle East, where majority of Muslims live. India for example has 100 million Muslims. South East Asia has another 250 millions.
reform doesn't mean re-writing the qoran!! it means ooking at it from a different perspective, and analysing it without any pre-defined assumptions that have been rooted in our thouhts from our ancestors.
i also do not think we need to reach consensus on how to parctice islam. its a religion for individulas not for people!
you cannot tel people either do it all or nothing - people are free to make their own interpreatations and do whatever they please, and it's up to god to judge.
what we need to make sure of is, that noone takes the name of islam and uses it to kill innocent people and achieve their hidden objectives and agenda
who talked about killing innocent people?? i am not talking about terorism issue. i am talking about how to live islam. personnaly i think that islam is way a way of life. so it involves a society after all. people living in peace, supporting each other...yes i have this picture in my mind when i am talking about isalm. of course, the first thing to bear in mind that no one on earth can judge another muslim thus what u do, how u practice, what u respect what not. it is between u and god. but what is unfortunat in muslim world today is as Dody said: nowdays there's different schhols that instead of sitting down and talking, are competing with each other. i think that that's bad, because simply we will have groups fighting each other, a fact which not be pleasant nor for muslims, who will be more disaoriented, nor for the rest of the world.
what i think is the best solution is that muslim people stick to the neatings for the moment. no need to rush to the complementarities beacause we r totally ignorants about our religion, so better stick to the issential and when u will master it then u can go further for "ijtihad" and interpretations and then different schools. but we have to kep in mind is that the core of islam should be the same everywhere because it is the same.
maybe it is an idealistic point of view but that's how i can imagine an islamic world which respect its identity
"i think that that's bad, because simply we will have groups fighting each other, a fact which not be pleasant nor for muslims, who will be more disaoriented, nor for the rest of the world.
"
Why does Muslim need to fight each other for Islam? Do you go to paradise faster if you win? Is there a score ticking up if you convert a Shiite to Sufi, etc?
Or does the fighting is more about power than about Islam?
If you think that Islam can be unified, the opposite is also true, that Islam can be broken and defragmented. And I don't think that's true.
Hey Luli,
back to your question whether it is not only being Arab but being muslim.
Not being a muslim and not an Arab and looking at it from outside, I actually believe that it is not being Arab at all but just being muslim. It is only impliedly Arab, because it is assumed that the Arabs are all muslim (which is not necessarily true)! Arabs have problems travelling around because they are believed to be potential suicide bombers or members of terrorist organisations not respecting the law of the land. So, the wide medium educated mass of Europeans - when seeing a veiled women- would associate her with: Lawless terrorist mobs, bestialic wife-beating and dominating male circumcising oppressing husbands and brothers. So a white veiled Swedish woman would be thought to have been forced to wear the veil by her husband as specified above. Alternatively, she is believed to be completely fundamentalist herself- which makes her a danger to the democratic society- as she will put sharia law above the law of the land and as it is seen as irrational as woman to choose Islam due to perceived or possibly actual sexism as in Sure 4, 34. So she is either pitied in secret or perceived as a danger.
So, there does not seem to be Arabophobia but only Islamophobia.
x Hope you are doing great
A good book on Islamic Reformation seems to be this one: Towards on Islamic Reformation by Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im.
But maybe it is a bit outdated. Nearly 10 years old. Maybe somebody like you should write a book instead. ;-)
writing a book takes patience, i don't think patience is a word that my brain registers!
you have good points -
being a firm believer in Islam - well MY Islam - i find it infuriating how it is so misunderstood.If it was properly understood it would gain people's respect at a minimum.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home