Repressive Islamic rule loses its lustre
by: Dave Belden on June 15th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Irfan Yusuf writes today at altmuslim:
Iranian Muslim youth aren’t the only ones disillusioned with theocratic politics. Many young Muslims in the West like myself, once attracted to political Islam, have now become disillusioned by it. At the same time, we feel disenchanted with Western attempts to manipulate it, then demonise it when it suits.
Aziz Poonawalla is monitoring the Iranian twitterers and can give you access to them:
The regime is afraid. That’s why they disabled text messaging on election day; why twitter and facebook are blocked; why the internet is being censored; why journalists are being expelled. And yet despite their efforts, the story is being told.
How long will it take for Iran’s younger generations to rid themselves of theocracy? And when they do, will they have something better than consumer capitalism and the best-democracy-money-can-buy to replace it with?
Shahed Amanullah
That’s the role that young Western Muslims like Shahed Amanullah and co. at altmuslim, Aziz P at City of Brass, Hussein Rashid at Religion Dispatches, Khalid Latif and Haroon Moghul (see their recent piece in Tikkun) are working out day by day: how to take the best of the various cultures and political traditions they know and craft their own synthesis. Had a fascinating breakfast with Wajahat Ali of altmuslim and Goatmilk last week, in which he talked about how young Muslims have to visibly shed their religion in order to be acceptable in progressive liberal circles (explain to me again what “liberal” means?). There are many smart young Muslims making careers in America who are in the closet about their own spirituality.
Will young Muslims of the future be divided between the anti-religious, reacting against Islamic theocracies they were raised in, and the brave rediscoverers of their religion, reacting against the secularity of the Western societies they were raised in? There’s a whole lot of synthesizing ahead. Progressive Muslims who take their own spirituality seriously are potential revivers of American democracy quite as much as of Iranian democracy and other majority Muslim countries’ polities: we can all learn, in discussion with them, from their emerging syntheses.
“Progressive Muslims who take their own spirituality seriously are potential revivers of American democracy quite as much as of Iranian democracy and other majority Muslim countries’ polities: we can all learn, in discussion with them, from their emerging syntheses.”
I could not agree more. As one of remarkably few non-Muslims attending last week-end’s national ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) conference in Washington, DC, I found the program chock full of fascinating panel discussions addressing various aspects of the assimilation / synthesizing conundrum American Muslims are working through.
One of the very best was called “Blogistan: Muslim Americans on the Web” featuring most of bloggers you mention, including Fatemeh Fakhraie of Muslimah Media Watch and Altmuslimah, both terrific blogs addressing Islamic gender issues.
The issues and ideas this group is engaging, commenting on, and encouraging Muslims and non-Muslims alike to participate in has got to be one of the most interesting and promising uses of web 2.0 technology anywhere in the world, not least because of their acute awareness its global scope. By all means check them out – - and join the discussion.