take a step to the left

I've been thinking about the role of religion and politics/economics these days.

At one point I remember thinking that Islam in certain respects seems leftist. Or to be more precise, it is critical of capitalism in a deep way. I mean, there are too many ethical constraints on the uses and abuses of wealth for anyone to say with a straight face that Islam gives unqualified suport to a laissez faire economy or gives unfettered freedom to the market. There are rules against charging interest, on hoarding wealth, on price gouging, limitations on sharecropping, on the uses of natural resources. etc. Not all economic behavior between consenting adults is permitted. One of the 5 pillars of the religion is a wealth redistribution program. Ramadan is a month-long reminder on the plight of the hungry. The Eids come with their obligation to feed the hungry as well. The money that we "have" isn't really ours anyway. It is just a trust, and we are accountable to God for what we do with it.

And then on top of that, due to "recent" historical events, the Muslim world has been very much on the receiving end of colonialism, globalization, and the modern manifestations of McWorld.

In varied ways, Muslims suffer from imposed identities. Where that could mean "Russian" (instead of Chechen) or "Chinese" (instead of Ughyar) or "Filpino" (instead of being from Mindanao) or "Indian" (instead of Kashmiri) etc. Instead of naming themselves and defining an autonomous existence they/we are being defined by others. It seems like an all-too-common story.

Islam is almost perfectly suited and situated to be the ultimate liberation theology, not just in terms of its principles but in terms of its demographics.

In terms of economic principles it would strive to moderate the excesses of capitalism. And in national struggles it can be a strong force for unity and solidarity.

So why should progressive Islam be so contraversial in some circles?

Some elements of the Muslim community are conservative, but it isn't exactly clear to me where their attitudes and beliefs are grounded. In the US presidential election before last, a coalition of Muslim organizations actually endorsed Bush ?!?! But in the election before, Clinton was the most popular candidate among Muslims. And actually, in both of the last two elections, Nader did rather well with Muslims.

The factors which conceivably played a part in all this are varied. Perhaps some wealthy immigrant Muslims were simply voting their pocketbooks and went Republican. Perhaps they believed the family values rhetoric. Anti-Semitism against Gore's choice of Lieberman as a running mate played no small roll. Perhaps a naiveness about how America treats non-white immigrants was also an issue. Allegedly one factor was that in one of the debates, Bush made a few comments suggesting that he was going to address the secret evidence laws, while Gore was relatively silent on the issues. And so somehow by some bizzare "thought" process some came to the conclusion that the Republican party would best defend their civil rights... go figure. Of course many African-American Muslims generally voted Democratic and in the wake of the umbrella endorsement of Bush, Black Muslims founded a few progressive Muslim political organizations to express dissent.

But this is all a rehash. But in the future I think it still remains an open question how the Muslims will fit into the American political spectrum. One possibility is that traditional concerns for family values along with a concern for social justice will put Muslims in a balanced position where they would be courted as a group because they would form a swing block. In some sense that would be the ideal. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how Muslims will assert themselves in the US political spectrum.

Anyway.. enough for now.. more later.