alan moore and organized religion

Just the other day I was talking with someone about how it seems that nowadays a lot of graphic novels (i.e. fancy comic books) have been grappling with religious themes. (for example, look at The Sandman, Lucifer, or Hellblazer which formed the basis for the film Constantine). This is also evident in the work of acclaimed graphic novelist Alan Moore, a practicing Gnostic... and also author of the anarchist fable, V for Vendetta.)

The other day I was in my local comic book store and found a book about Moore which contained a pretty thought-provoking interview where he shares his thoughts on religion:

What I'm saying is that, to me, organised religion seems to be an accumulation of dead ritual, lifeless dogma; and largely fear-driven belief that has built up around some original kernel of genuine spiritual experience. From what I understand of the original Essenes, for example, they were Gnostics. That is to say, their spirituality was based not upon faith or belief but upon personal apprehension and knowledge, or gnosis, of the powers at work in the Universe. They didn't believe:

They knew. If there over was such a historical personage as Jesus Christ, and if this person did have a group of Apostles around him, they were not acting from belief either. Saul/Paul had the heavenly searchlight turned upon him during his day trip to Damascus. Pentecostal Fire danced on their tongues. Thomas... a pure-bred I'm-From-Missouri Gnostic if ever I heard of one... even put his hand in the wound of the resurrected messiah. Gnosis ... personal knowledge and experience of the spiritual I have no problem with.

What I do have a problem with is the middle management who have manouvered themselves between the wellspring and those who thirst in the field of spirituality just as efficiently as they've done it in every other field of human endeavour. It seems to me that when the blueprint for the modern Christian faith was first sketched out by the Emperor Constantine and his marketing department, it was constructed largely to solve a couple of immediate Earthly problems that Rome was faced with at the time. They had a city divided by different theological factions, the largest and noisiest probably being the early Christian zealots. Then there was the cult of *Mithras*, which was smaller but which included the bulk of the Roman Military. Finally there was the cult of Sol *Invictus*, the undefeated Sun, which was relatively small but very popular amongst the merchant class.

Constantine's posse came up with a composite religion to unite Rome: Christianity would incorporate large chunks of Mithraism, including the stuff about being born in a cave surrounded by shepherds and animals on the 25th of December, and would make concessions to the cult of Sol Invictus, the Undefeated Sun, by sticking a big Sun-symbol behind the messiah's head in all the publicity handouts. This is politics.

The effect in spiritual terms is to move the emphasis away from any genuine personal spiritual experience. Whereas for the original Gnostics such a personal knowledge of and direct communication with the Godhead was the cornerstone of their spiritual life, after the priesthood moved in the basic proposition was vastly different:

"You don't need to have had a transforming experience yourselves, and in fact neither do the priesthood need to have had a transforming experience. The important thing is that we have this book, about people� who lived a long time ago, and they had transforming experiences, and if you come along on Sunday we'll read to you about them, and that will be. your transforming experience." This sounds to me like a co-opting of the divine impulse a channeling of the individual's spiritual aspirations into a mechanism for social regulation.

So, no, I'm not a big fan of organised religion of any kind.

It's a lot to think about. On the one hand, I have an "inner Taliban" which is very much enamored by orthodoxy and tradition. On the other hand, another part of me is very sympathetic to Moore's point and is a spiritual "anarchist" of sorts. I feel that both tendancies are necessary and each serves as a corrective to the excesses of the other.

some previous entries which have touched on some related themes are:
the guru principle
carlos santana
protestant islam
muslim anarchism
not spiritual but religious
"'x-men' is not a cleverly named documentary about the nation of islam..."
anarchism, hollywood style

I think I'll stop here and elaborate a little more later...

the day after

For a while now, I've been meaning to write something more about Anida Yoeu Eseguerra on Planet Grenada. I think she has an interesting perspective because she's a Muslim spoken word artist who deals with cultural/political issues but isn't ethnically "typical" for a Muslim in America. (She describes herself as a "non hyphenated Cambodian Muslim American woman"). Since she actually wrote me an e-mail a few days ago, I figure I will actually show some love and post one her poems. (Y'all should also check her website: atomicshogun.com where she has more poems, audio and visual files of other performances, booking info, etc.)

The Day After
A Cento based on Hate Crimes filed shortly after 9/11


Awoke to signs,
“Terrorists'' sprayed in red paint across their family's driveway,
“Terrorist on board'' written on their white car.
Awoke to find,
freeway sign says, "Kill all Arabs"
elevator sign says, "Kill all towel heads"

A Pakistani Muslim living in L.A.
awoke to find his car scratched across
the right side with the words “Nuke ‘em!”

Awoke to find
300 march on a mosque in Bridgeview, IL.
300 American flags shout "USA! USA!"
Mosque awoke to find a 19-year-old shouting
"I'm proud to be American, I hate Arabs and I always have."

Firebomb tossed,
Taxi driver pulled out and beaten,
Vandals in Collingswood, N.J. attacked two Indian-owned businesses.
Vandals spray-painted "leave town."

Awoke to find
a South Asian American,
Sikh, chased by a group of four men yelling "terrorist.”
Sikh mistaken as a Muslim American.

Back up.
Sikh man, 69, shot.
Body found in a canal
He had a turban on.
Turban mistaken as a Muslim American.

A vehicle of white males,
followed and harassed a 21-year-old female.
Attackers yelled, "Go back to your own country!"
The attackers’ car pinned her against another vehicle.
Then they backed up and ran over her again.
Kimberly—a 21-year-old
Back up. A 21-year-old full blood Creek
Back up. Full blood Creek Native American
Mistaken as a Muslim American

Awoke to find,
a Pakistani native beaten by three men.

Back up. Egyptian American, 48, killed point-blank
Back up. Sikh man, 49 shot.
Shooter shouted, "I stand for America all the way."

Back up.
A man pushing a baby stroller walked by a mosque
He stopped and started yelling,
"You Islamic mosquitoes should be killed."
Mosquitoes mistaken as Muslim Americans.

Awoke to find two women speaking Spanish in a doctor's office.
A Caucasian woman yells, "You foreigners caused all this trouble,"
and begins to beat one of the women.
Spanish mistaken as Muslim.

Back up.
She asks the woman if she is Arab,
And then punches her in the eye.

Awoke to be mistaken.
A woman wearing Muslim clothing was shopping.
A Caucasian woman began attacking her and yelled,
"America is only for white people."

Back up. America mistaken for white people.

Armed man sets fire to a Seattle mosque.
300 march on mosque in Bridgeview, IL.
Mosques in Carrollton, Denton and Irving, Texas, attacked.
Muslim student at Arizona State University attacked.
Afghan restaurant in Fremont attacked with bottles and rocks.
Two suspects wrote "die" on a Persian Club booth.

A gasoline bomb is thrown
through the window of a Sikh family's home,
hitting a 3-year-old on the head.

Two women at a bagel store, attacked
for wearing a Quranic charm around her neck.
Attacker lunges,
Yells, "Look what you people have done to my people"
No one in the store tried to help.
The owner apologized to the attackers for any inconvenience.

300 march on two women
No one tried to help.

Two women awoke to find
an explosion from a cherry bomb
outside the Islamic Center of San Diego.
San Diego mistaken for Muslim Americans
"Look what you people have done to my people."
300 march on mosque in Bridgeview, IL
No one tried to help.
Sign says, "Kill all Arabs."
Sign says, "Kill all towel heads."
Towels mistaken for Muslim Americans
No one tried to help.
Vandals attack.
No one tried to help.
He had a turban on.
No one tried to help.
Sign says, "Look what you people have done”
Flags wave in an Afghan restaurant.
300 march against Spanish spoken at a doctor’s office
Spanish mistaken for Muslim Americans
300 march on two women at a bagel store
Bagels mistaken for Muslim Americans
300 wave cherry bombs.
Bombs march on 300 Sikhs,
hitting a 3-year-old on the head.

Look what you people have done.

metamorphosis boricua

Just yesterday I was surprised to find a blog for the second spoken word artist I refered to in ignacio/ingrid rivera. The blog is called Metamorphosis Boricua and it is a very candid and visual record of one person's trans-formation from female-to-somethingelse.

First and last it should be said that changing genders is a radical decision and it is not likely that anyone would undertake such a process lightly or frivolously. But to be honest, I'm not sure how to properly understand or appreciate such a choice. (That's intended as an admission of ignorance, not a judgement.)

On the one hand, I can't help but have compassion for someone who feels so fundamentally out of place that they want to change bodies in order to be themselves.

On the other hand, in Islam there are various restrictions on certain kinds of body modifications and cosmetic procedures (e.g. tattoos, wigs, hairpieces, dying hair to look young, filing teeth etc.) to avoid vanity. And there is a general principle prohibiting "changing the creation of Allah" (taghyir khalq Allah). This restriction is certainly not absolute and I've never seen its limits precisely defined, but the principle suggests to me that we should be happy with our bodies as they are naturally and not mess with them too much without good reason.

What is "good reason"? That's not quite so clear.

In any case, there are both Sunni and Shia scholars who have given fatwas permitting sex-change operations if necessary.

See also:
the men will look like the women...
the grass is always greener...

innumerable sluts now available

Ok, for many years now I've heard the ISNA convention described as a "meat-market", but the cynicism has reached a new low when I recently heard someone joke that ISNA = "Innumerable Sluts Now Available". Damn.

apuntes palestine

Check out: Apuntes Palestine a blog from Fernando Reals, a Boricua from New York writing about his experiences in Palestine.

amir sulaiman: the illusion

I've just been listening to a Amir Sulaiman CD today, and was especially impressed by the talk called "The Illusion" and felt like sharing it. I looked around online and found a blogger, Muntaka Shah, who was generous enough to type up a transcript. I think the talk captures a lot of what I find so compelling in Islam. It isn't about blind faith and emotional displays. It is more about a calm certainty which comes from unvarnished realism; knowing who you are in relation to God and the world.

see also:
manifest liberation: the four gates

we be broke while other folks' cash registers be like "i ching" "i ching" "i ching"

Lucy/Chambers is yet another piece from Heru. I really like this one, especially the section which includes the line I'm using as the title of this entry.

Those who hate what I’m saying right now are those who saw the slave ships coming and bowed. Those are the same people who would sell out their own people for trinkets and shiny things. They never say a word in African tongue like "uhuru" but are quick to say “Bling bling bling bling bumbleclot bling”. So you best turn off your tv unless you watchin’ Discovery or Nova. Because we need to start higher forms of meditation like yoga or Tantric Buddhism or something. Because we be broke while other folks’ cash registers be like “I Ching” “I Ching” “I Ching”

He reminds me of how Saul Williams broke down the word dis/orient and said it meant "to turn away from the East".

In other words, Williams (and Paul Robeson, and probably Heru) are saying that we are lost and disoriented because we cling too firmly to Western values. And in order to be "found" and properly "oriented" we need to look to the Orient (at least partially).

I think the "we be broke..." line is deep and hilariously clever. On the other hand (and I am overanalyzing it, but that's ok because it is really just a way to introduce some other topics) the more I thought about the line, the more I wanted to question whether or not it was actually true.

Are we (Black folks in America) really spritually broke? How do you even start to measure the spiritual wealth of a whole group? In my mind, the question is tied into a recent conversation over at the The Manrilla blog about the role of Arabic (or more precisely, Arab people) in the revelation of the Quran. Should a religious Muslim view the Quran as an accomplishment of Arab people? (You can read the discussion over there, but my basic answer: "no".)

Or moving along to the next part of the line, can the I Ching be viewed as an accomplishment of Chinese civilization? Another thought: Are "Oriental" people really more spiritual anyway? I'm admittedly working from a skewed sample but many of the East Asians I know are either Christian, or think that religion is for "old people" and so they don't think about it much. Most of the Indians I know seem to treat yoga like something which they learned in gym class (which it often is) rather than a deep spiritual practice. It seems like globally, most folks are fairly secular and caught up in the world, and it is only a minority in any civilization who worry much about spiritual things.

In fact, the more I think about the "we be broke..." line, especially in the context of the whole piece, the more I suspect I was misreading it earlier. The main clues are the multiple references to Ausar Auset (In fact even the name Heru is associated with the Ausar Auset and their version of the Tree of Life). Ausar Auset seems to encourage yoga, meditation, the kabbalah and other spiritual practices, including study of the I Ching. So if Heru is a part of the movement, it seems more likely that the line is his way to be genuinely humble about the fact that from his perspective, his own pockets are fat with spiritual "loot".

Anyway, I'm going to basically stop here. I know very little about Ausar Auset so I shouldn't "pontificate" about them out of ignorance. But since this is Planet Grenada, I will mention that the founder, Ra Un Nefer Amen (Rogelio Alcides Straughn) was born in Panama.

I'll leave you with some relevant links... until next time.

Grenada's past:
more on heru, the pan-african spoken-word artist
heru on the bush administration
saul williams
disoriented
i ching and the tao of islam

a revolution in the middle east

From Immortal Technique's myspace blog: A Revolution in the Middle East

final call interview with immortal technique

From the Final Call: A lyrical revolution - Interview with Immortal Technique the Afro-Latino (but non-Muslim) rapper who has been mentioned several times here on Planet Grenada.

AM: What is the perfect world for Immortal Technique?

IT: The perfect world for me is to find some sort of inner peace. I believe that a man that walks with God can walk anywhere. Just because I choose to question religion doesn�t mean that I�m spitting in God's face; it's the opposite. I'm tired of people spitting in God's face. I'm tired of seeing these divisions over a different type of Christianity, over a different type of Islam.

When you look at Sunni and Shiite, you see that their division comes from who would control the culture of Islam. That isn�t about the sanctity of the religion, that's about who has the power. Are they related to the Prophet? If they weren't related to him, there's no way you would become related to him; you couldn't become his son all of a sudden if you were already born.

The Catholic Church did the same thing with its succession of popes. It is disturbing that one of [Cardinal Ratzinger's] primary functions was to destroy liberation theology in Latin Americaan ideology that promoted that Jesus Christ was more on the side of poor people than he would be on the side of rich people; that was Cardinal Ratzinger's position before he became pope. He was busy destroying those documents, destroying the idea that Jesus had more to do with the people; that he walked among than individuals that stole his image; that painted him White; that decided to use him to justify everything else.

I would love for [Jesus] to come back because I would love for him to face what is happening and to really have some sort of perspective. In that same respect, I'm sure that Prophet Muhammad would be disgusted by what some people use his name to justify.

and so it was said

Sort of following up on the greater jihad post, here is a hadith for folks who have too simplistic a notion of how those who fight will be rewarded. It is pretty deep if you think about it. Even if you go and fight in a physical jihad, you still need to make sure that your intentions are in the right place (do internal jihad) or else all your actions are for nothing.

On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) say:

The first of people against whom judgment will be pronounced on the Day of Resurrection will be a man who died a martyr. He will be brought and Allah will make known to him His favours and he will recognize them. [ The Almighty] will say: And what did you do about them? He will say: I fought for you until I died a martyr. He will say: You have lied - you did but fight that it might be said [of you]: He is courageous. And so it was said. Then he will be ordered to be dragged along on his face until he is cast into Hell-fire. [Another] will be a man who has studied [religious] knowledge and has taught it and who used to recite the Quran. He will be brought and Allah will make known to his His favours and he will recognize them. [The Almighty] will say: And what did you do about them? He will say: I studied [religious] knowledge and I taught it and I recited the Quran for Your sake. He will say: You have lied - you did but study [religious] knowledge that it might be said [of you]: He is learned. And you recited the Quran that it might be said [of you]: He is a reciter. And so it was said. Then he will be ordered to be dragged along on his face until he is cast into Hell-fire. [Another] will be a man whom Allah had made rich and to whom He had given all kinds of wealth. He will be brought and Allah will make known to his His favours and he will recognize them. [The Almighty] will say: And what did you do about them? He will say: I left no path [untrodden] in which You like money to be spent without spending in it for Your sake. He will say: You have lied - you did but do so that it might be said [of you]: He is open-handed. And so it was said. Then he will be ordered to be dragged along on his face until he is cast into Hell-fire.

It was related by Muslim (also by at-Tirmidhi and an-Nasa'i)

the greater jihad: a muslim art of war

"Some troops came back from an expedition and went to see the Messenger of Allah (saaws). He said: "You have come for the best, from the smaller jihad (al-jihad al-asghar) to the greater jihad (al-jihad al-akbar)." Someone said, "What is the greater jihad?" He said: "The servant's struggle against his lust" (mujahadat al-`abdi hawah).

For a long time now I've had an idea for a book. And I still might try to complete this project at a future date but I also think it is a good enough idea that on some level (especially in the current political climate) I would be happy if someone else "stole" the idea and did it first as long as it was executed well. My idea is to put together a Muslim version of the Art of War. Another work in the same ballpark would be the Hagakure which describes the code and values of the Samurai and which was prominently featured in the film Ghost Dog (A great film staring Forest Whitaker as a modern-day black Samurai/hitman in New Jersey)

What do I mean by a "Muslim Art of War"? I mean a compilation of Muslim reflection on struggle and warfare, starting with certain relevant passages of the Quran and examples from hadith, but also including the sayings of the companions and those who followed them, and possibly even writings from awliya who have participated in jihad through the centuries. Basically a spiritually-tinged Muslim guide to struggle, both physical and metaphysical.

I am bringing this idea up publically now because I recently found an anti-Islam site (which I won't do the honor of naming) where the author tried to discredit the above hadith and argue that co-existence with Muslims is impossible and that Islam were hell-bent on taking over the world. While it is true that there is a certain weakness in the isnad of the above hadith, one can still find ample support for its meaning in other more authentic texts. [1] [2]

Many of the ayat and hadith which would go into the kind of project I'm talking about should be unsurprising to many Muslims... for example:

A man asked: "What kind of jihad is better?"
The Prophet (saaws) replied: "A word of truth spoken in front of an oppressive ruler."

or

The Prophet (saaws) said: "The strong one is not the one who overcomes people, the strong one is he who overcomes his nafs [ego]."

But what might also be beneficial would be to look at some of the later texts which even Muslims might be less familiar with. For example, I'm Sunni but I still own a copy of Nahjul Balagha (or the Peak of Eloquence, a Shia collection of letters, sermons and sayings attributed to Imam Ali). I tend to suspend judgement about it's authenticity, but I'm not opposed to the idea that most of the text might actually trace back to Ali. In any case, if you look through it, you could find such gems as:

During civil disturbance adopt such an attitude that people do not attach any importance to you - they neither burden you with complicated affairs, nor try to derive any advantage out of you.

...

If you overpower your enemy, then pardon him by way of thankfulness to Allah, for being able to subdue him.

...

Silence will create respect and dignity; justice and fairplay will bring more friends; benevolence and charity will enhance prestige and position; courtesy will draw benevolence; service of mankind will secure leadership and good words will overcome powerful enemies.

In fact, many of the contents of Nahjul Balagha are presented as words from Ali either before or after a particular military/political action. In any case, I'm going to stop now and (inshaAllah) bring out more of this topic across a couple of posts.

Also check out S.H. Nasr: The Spiritual Significance of Jihad

"god gave noah the rainbow sign..." (part three)

There are a few other reasons for why the Noachides are so intriguing to me.

The Noachide faith seems like it could potentially provide a crude foundation for Perennialism (a subject we have talked about before). The Noachide principles (especially if they were developed more deeply) are arguably a form of the Perennial Wisdom (Sophia Perennis) which lies at the common center of all authentic religions.

In particular, the Islamic shariah also incorporates the basic Noachide commandments (including some of the more distinctive details regarding sexual immorality, making idols, and consuming blood) while obviously including many more besides the basic set of 7. So in some sense Islam is a more fleshed out way to be a "Noachide" while being more autonomous from Orthodox Judaism.

Also, it is common for Muslims to say that in some (usually metaphysical) sense, Islam is the eternal religion of all the prophets. But if the Noachide path is authentic, then one could literally say that Muslims are following the religion of Noah.

A final more provocative note... one of the more controversial issues which Muslim scholars seem to disagree on is the exact identity of the Sabians. Over the centuries, there has been a lot of speculation on which group is intended by the Quran in passages like:

Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last day and does good, they shall have their reward from their Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve. (2:62)

Some have suggested that the Sabians were star-worshippers and not even People of the Book. Others have identified them with the gnostic Mandaeans of Iran and Iraq who believe in John the Baptist (but not Jesus). But at least one scholar has suggested that the Sabians are a religion who follow the religion of Noah and read the Psalms. (The rabbis actually suggest that Noachides used the Psalms in their devotions). So if there were prominent communities of Noachides in the early Muslim world, perhaps they really did live on the Arabian Peninsula and are referred to in the Quran.

I won't get into the details now, but to add credibility to the above, in the New Testament (especially Acts 15) and other sources, there is some indication that many Gentiles in the ancient world followed some form of Noachide observance.

Google Directory: Noahidism

ignacio/ingrid rivera

I happen to be on an e-mail list where I got a heads-up about a new show called "Dancer" by Black Boricua spoken-word artist and activist, Ignacio Rivera.

I first saw Ignacio Rivera perform...

back when he was Ingrid Rivera...

in a show called Lagrimas de Cocodrilo/ Crocodile Tears. The performance was rather powerful and she genuinely wrestled with her experiences of sexual abuse and anxiety about being a mother. It dealt more with gender and sexuality than I expected. I went into it wanting more emphasis on the cultural/racial aspect but I was still very moved by her raw performance).

A few months ago, after seeing Ingrid, but before learning that she was becoming Ignacio I saw a performance by another Boricua spoken word artist who was also female-to-male transgendered. (Incidentally, that was where I first saw the video for "Querido FBI")

Both performances were intense, personal, and seemed cathartic for the artist. Both individuals also made me consider the question: Is culture is more fundamental to a person's identity than gender or vice versa? What do you think?

churches calls for divestment from israel

Haaretz: World Council of Churches calls for divestment from Israel

This is actually kind of deep. In contrast to the Christian Zionists in the evangelical movement, the World Council of Churches actually represents the mainstream of Protestants in the world.

On the other hand, the Christian Zionists still have a loud voice. For example see:
Al-Jazeera: Christian Zionists and false prophets by Daoud Kuttab
Mother Jones: Christian Zionists continue to have clout with White House
Kansas City Infozine: Christian Zionists Lobby Congress

dj ahmedinejad aka hugo chavez

To be honest, I'm not sure what the whole story is. But I was checking out Ted Swedenburg's blog hawgblawg, and in his latest post Sound Comments... were links to different music pages, one by someone with the Grenada-esque name of DJ Ahmedinejad aka Hugo Chavez and some links to other pages by some very non-traditional Middle Eastern + Turkish electronic music collectives. Not my usual musical fare but still worth a listen.

niggers are scared of revolution

I don't know how your mind works but thinking about Gil Scott-Heron got me thinking about The Last Poets. And reflecting on that last hadith and how our current situation is related to love of the dunya and fear of death got me thinking about thier spoken word piece, Niggers are scared of Revolution. I don't mean to be irreverent but there seems to be a common message running through both pieces (although they are radically different in terms of tone and form).

our current condition

Partial Translation of Sunan Abu-Dawud
Book 37, Number 4284:
Narrated Thawban:

The Prophet (saaws) said: The people will soon summon one another to attack you as people when eating invite others to share their dish. Someone asked: Will that be because of our small numbers at that time? He replied: No, you will be numerous at that time: but you will be scum and rubbish like that carried down by a torrent, and Allah will take fear of you from the breasts of your enemy and cast wahn (enervation) into your hearts. Someone asked: What is wahn (enervation)? Apostle of Allah (saaws): He replied: Love of the world and dislike of death.

I was reminded of the above at jummah today. Of course the khatib repeated the frequently made point that the above hadith is a pretty spot-on description of the ummah in its current condition. But the message hit home with me a little harder than usual because I think it is also a pretty good diagnosis of my personal condition these days. As usual, I'm not going to get into too many details, just keep me in your dua.

the revolution will not be televised

For reasons I'm not going to get into, I've actually been thinking a lot about Gil Scott-Heron's classic spoken word piece, The Revolultion will not be Televised. In some ways, it is very very dated but you still have to respect the significance it had in its time, and the influence it has had on hip-hop (especially "conscious" hip-hop) in the present day.

"god gave noah the rainbow sign..." (part two)

I think "O Mary don't you weep" is one of the more interesting gospel tunes for a number of reasons. (I really like Aretha Franklin's version off of her Amazing Grace album. The closest I could come to it in terms of a link was the Yolanda Adams version) I'm bringing it up now because at least the Springsteen version has the line "God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water the fire next time" which seemed relevant to the previous discussion of the Noachides.

Secondly it is one of the least objectionable hymns from an Islamic theological perspective. (No talk of Trinity, Incarnation, Crucifixion, etc.)

In fact, I would suggest that it makes a very good "ashurah hymn" (see day after day after day...) If you go by the most rigorous Sunni textual standards, Ashurah celebrates God rescuing the Jews from the forces of Pharaoh. And of course for Shias it commemorates the death of Hussein. But there are also soures which associate the day with other acts of God's mercy throughout sacred history, including the landing of Noah's ark, the healing of Job, the ascencion of Jesus and other events which are all superimposed on one another much as they are in the song:

God gave Noah the rainbow sign
"No more water but fire next time"
Pharaoh's army got drownded
O Mary don't you weep

The same God who is willing to enter powerfully in history and drown an army to save a nation, is the same God willing to raise one person to comfort a crying woman.

You Tube: O Mary don't you weep (1930's Georgia fieldhands)
You Tube: O Mary don't you weep (Bruce Springsteen)
You Tube: O Mary don't you weep (Yolanda Adams tribute to Aretha Franklin)
Lyrics to O Mary don't you Weep (Springsteen version)

"god gave noah the rainbow sign..." (part one)

So I found a new website: www.hashlamah.org which describes itself as advocating "the path of all prophets". The site seems fairly young and doesn't have a whole lot of articles or text in place but there appear to be some connections to taliyah al-mahdi and sean muttaqi, vegan reich and the hardline movement which we've talked about before.

The author of the site seems to be trying to develop a religious perspective which includes Judeo-Christian, Islamic and Taoist elements but the fact that he emphasizes Hebrew/Jewish terminology makes it more reminiscent of the Noachide movement.

Never heard of the Noachides? They are basically non-Jews who accept and follow the (usually Orthodox) Jewish conception of how Gentiles ought to live.

More specifically, if you take the Bible literally, then even before the covenant with the children of Israel at Sinai, God established a covenant with Noah and his descendents (i.e. all human beings). The sign of this covenant was the rainbow. And on God's side He promises not to destroy the world by flood again. ("God gave Noah the rainbow sign/ No more water, the fire next time") But then according to the Bible, man also has obligations to hold up on his end of the deal as well.

And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning; of every beast I will require it and of man; of every man's brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image. And you, be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly on the earth and multiply in it."

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, "Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth."

And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
Genesis 9:1-13

Later rabbinical legal reasoning has taken this passage and others to generate a list of 7 commandments (not even a full set of 10) which are binding on Gentiles according to Orthodox Judaism:

1. Avodah zarah - Do not worship false gods.
2. Shefichat damim - Do not murder.
3. Gezel - Do not steal (or kidnap).
4. Gilui arayot - Do not be sexually immoral (forbidden sexual acts are traditionally interpreted to include incest, bestiality, male homosexual sex acts, i.e. sodomy, and adultery.)
5. Birkat Hashem - Do not "bless God" euphemistically referring to blasphemy.
6. Ever min ha-chai - Do not eat any flesh that was torn from the body of a living animal (given to Noah and traditionally interpreted as a prohibition of cruelty towards animals)
7. Dinim - Set up a system of honest, effective courts, police and laws.

According to some Jewish authorities, these commandments can actually be seen as 7 categories of laws, which can be broken down further into 66 commandments (or 30 in another formulation).

When I stop to think about it, it is surprising that there are actually people who are willing to participate in a Noachide movement under these terms. Judaism offers Jews a very rich and detailed set of guidelines for behavior while Gentile spirituality is a more loosely defined afterthought. Noachides believe that Orthodox Judaism is basically true, but choose not to covert. Nevertheless they still structure their own spiritual and ethical life in Jewish terms by following the Noachide path.

I'm not saying that the author of the Hashlamah page is a part of this movement, but just that one reminds me of the other. Both seem to start with the Torah and Jewish terminology and both seem to wrestle against Judaism's particularism by laying out a path for all humanity to follow.

Online book: The Path of the Righteous Gentile
Wikipedia: Noachide Laws
JewishEncyclopedia: Noachian Laws
Chabad-Lubavitch: Jews and Hasidic Gentiles: United to Save America
Rachav's Page: The Seven Laws Become Sixty-Six

heru on the bush administration

I just found some more spoken-word from Heru on YouTube. The piece is called "Hush, hush, hush..." I think it's my favorite performance of his so far from among the ones I've read/heard/seen.

did he know the mike was on?

YouTube: The other state of the Union Speech

post 9/11 blues

Shave your beard if your brown
And you best salute the crown
Or theyll do you like Brazillians
And shoot your ass down

Check out the Post 9/11 Blues by UK rapper MC Riz

Grenada: i guess we ALL look alike
The Observer: What happened to MC Riz?

the jamaa'at tableegh and the deobandis

I feel a little weird including this link to the online book The Jamaa'at Tableegh and the Deobandis. On the one hand the book is probably the most detailed text I've seen which disusses the specific beliefs of the Deobandi movement and really helps to locate the Deobandis in their proper place with respect to Islamic thought. On the other hand, the author is definitely a hostile witness who sees the Deobandis as a deviant group and so the book is very polemical throughout. I'll just say that the book is interesting reading but to take what it says with a great deal of salt. I'm sure you can learn a great deal about the Deobandis by reading it, but you can probably learn a lot more on what the Salafis think about the Deobandis.

the cultural politics of paul robeson and richard wright

Chickenbones: The Cultural Politics of Paul Robeson and Richard Wright: Theorizing the African Diaspora by Floyd W. Hayes, III compares and contrasts how two great African-American cultural critics dealt with living in the belly of the beast.

radical african-american muslims

Thanks to George Kelly of negrophile for the heads up:

Radical Trends in African-American Islam by Chris Zambelis starts off by acknowledging the fact that the Seas of David, the group whose members were recently arrested in Florida, aren't actually a Muslim organization. But his article still goes on to raise an alarmist note about possible radical militant tendancies among African-American Muslims.

Florida African-American Group Inspired by al-Qaeda Ideology also by Zambelis, goes into a little more detail about the Seas of David and its similarities to other movements. He also points out that just because a group may be tactically working with al-Qaeda that doesn't necessarily imply any kind of ideological affinity. For example, the white supremacist group Aryan Nations has manifested some willingness to co-ordinate their efforts with al-Qaeda as well.

I would want to underline again the point I made earlier in ideology and temperament that violence and militancy need to be viewed seperately from the issue of ideology.

Perhaps the point would be easier to see in a different context. In the U.S. one of the main examples we see of Christian terrorism appears in the form of violence directed at abortion clinics and the doctors and nurses who work in them. There is a small extremist fringe which engages in such violence, even though in principle the overwhelming majority of Catholics and evangelical Christians believe that abortion is morally equivalent to murder. So the difference between the terrorists and the non-terrorists doesn't lie in their beliefs about abortion but somewhere else (e.g. their mental health or emotional state, attitudes towards "the system" and a host of other factors which could be lumped together under the umbrella of "temperament")

I would suggest that in a similar way one can make room for "radical" (deep, to the "root") Muslims whose worldview is thoroughly shaped by the principles of orthodox Islam. Truly "radical" Islam will inspire and guide its practitioners to lead more compassionate and spiritual lives. Such "radicals" will be good neighbors who make positive contributions to whatever society they live in. Terrorism, on the other hand, is rooted in narrow thinking, short-sightedness and anger. It doesn't come from "depth" or being "radical", on the contrary, it is the ultimate example of superficiality which treats life and death as means to an end.

I feel like I plug it too much but I want to just point to the Third Resurrection blog to demonstrate that a deep "radical" commitment to the Quran and Sunnah combined with the collective spiritual, historical, political, and philosophical wisdom of people of African-descent is a good thing; something to be prized and valued and cultivated instead of feared.

see also:
islam needs radicals
islam in latin america (which links to another article by Chris Zambelis)
laughing lions
miami and the seas of david
eric robert rudolph

cageprisoners.com

Cageprisoners.com is a website for more up-to-date information about those imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay

Grenada's past:
un calls guantanamo a us torture camp
don't know what else to say
guantanamo suicide attempts
guantanamo and planet grenada

hairpeace or "how to take over the world and still remain human beings"

One of my favorite examples of storytelling is called Hairpeace by Pearl Cleage. In college, a friend of mine had given me a copy of a spoken word tape he had dubbed from another classmate. The tape was mostly The Last Poets along with some other unidentified spoken-word pieces (including Hairpeace). For the longest time I had no idea what the piece was even called or the name of the person speaking.

But a few months ago, with Google's help, I was actually able to track the text of the original work down and have included the link above. The piece is, on one level, a commentary on how prominent "hair issues" are in Black culture.

Sometimes it seems like all we ever talk about is hair. But it's not our fault. It's a rule. You can't be a black woman writer in America and not talk about hair. They won't renew your license and, well, a black woman writing without a license in America? I guess you know the penalty for that.

The premise is that there is actually a formal requirement to tell a minimum of 10 hair stories a year if you want to be a black woman writer. But Cleage has not been sticking to quota and since the deadline is coming up and it is too late to get extension (pun probably intended), she decides tell all 10 hair stories in one sitting.

If I had to tell my own hair story, I would have to mention how in college I'd always admired the brothers with their own clippers who had the skill to make a little extra money by giving haircuts. Later on, I would get my own equipment so that I could at least take care of my own hair. But eventually, after a "tragic" clipper accident I started shaving my hair off altogether and the rest is history. I haven't paid for a haircut in years.

I'm reminded of Hairpeace now, especially because of one passage in particular:

Discourse about afternoon slow dancing and the possibilities of grown-up, non-monogamous love, and the raising of sane and thoughtful and affectionate children, and the methods necessary to take over the world and still remain human beings is not allowed, because whenever we get together, we're supposed to bolt the door and dim the lights and look at each other and say, "O-o-o-o-o-o! This terrible hair!"

I was really struck by that phrase, "how to take over the world and still remain human beings". That is what it is all about. Grenada. Progressive politics. The spiritual left. Food not bombs. The Civil Rights Movement. All sorts of humane activism and social justice work. Revolutionary movements throughout history have given into temptation and found themselves on the wrong side of this dilemma, becoming at least as bad as the regimes they overthrew.

Or in terms of my own small-scale political world: How do you change a political system for the better, while holding on to your integrity? How do you deal with dishonest and Machiavellian actors without adopting their methods? How do you follow Jesus' instructions to "be as wise as serpents, and as innocent as doves"?

If I figure it out, I'll let you know.

Grenada's past (the connections to the above aren't necessarily deep or obvious)
somewhat machiavellian
it's a small world after all
it's just the mood i'm in
at the risk of sounding ridiculous...

a recent interview with suheir hammad

Out in the Indian Ocean somewhere
There's a former army post
Abandoned now just like the war
And there's no doubt about it
It was the myth of fingerprints
That's what that old army post was for
-Paul Simon

The above is from "The myth of the fingerprints", one of the more thought-provoking songs on Paul Simon's Graceland album. The myth of the fingerprints (in my view) is the idea that we are all different and absolutely unique, all unconnected and alone. This illusion of isolation leads to division, a lack of empathy and ultimately violence ("That's what that old army post was for").

I am reminded of that song after finding a recent interview with Suheir Hammad on the Electronic Intifada, and especially after reading the following section:

The Black Nationalist Movement, the Power To The People Movements, plural, all made these connections. African Nationalism, Arab Nationalism, the indigenous movements in South and Central America which were crushed by our government all made the connection, it came back to land. [...] I can make that connection without reading any book and without having a political view on any one of the ethnic conflicts around the world. I can make the connection with me and a Palestinian farmer whose olive trees are razed, or an American farmer in Nebraska who can no longer save seeds because the big pesticide companies say that seeds can no longer be saved. I think that connection is already there. One of the things that happens - it has happened with the work of June Jordan and Audre Lorde - the criticism that would be thrown upon them is: "The world is not that connected." There are these huge differences and there is a reactionary part of nationalism, of course, which says "no one suffers like my people suffer." That is what Angela Davis calls "the oppression Olympics" - "No one has been through this history. No one knows how I feel." The gap that I'm trying to fill isn't whether or not we are connected, because people understand this connection no matter the language that addresses the culture we are talking about, but the sense that the differences are okay and should be celebrated. And that ultimately, the differences don't matter when it comes to putting food on your child's plate or the kind of education that will be available to them. People have a hard time and we tend to feel isolated in our victimhood - that's the idea of victimhood, right? No one else understands and no one else can help you.

palestinian che

I'm not sure about the original source of this image, but it certainly seems to fit the blog. So does:
"jerusalem is ours"
you say it like its a bad thing...
salsa diplomacy
which are also about interesting juxtapositions between elements of Arab/Muslim culture on the one hand, and Latino culture on the other.

terry howcott

I just wanted to give a shout-out to Terry Howcott's page and her list of strongly recommended sites. I also added a link to my side bar. The bulk of the sites are largely Black-themed but a few are also progressive-, Latino- or Muslim-related as well.

weeping and nashing of teeth aka he got game

This is very non-Grenadaesque entry about love, romance and game theory which I started to write on over a month ago but didn't pick up again until now. One of the more oddly thought-provoking scenes from the film A Beautiful Mind takes place in a bar where the mathematician John Nash and his classmates are admiring the same blonde woman from across the room:

Nash: If we all go for the blonde, we block each other, and not a single one of us is goin'’ to get her. So then we go for her friends, but they will all give us the cold shoulder because nobody likes to be second choice. But what if no one goes for the blonde? We don'’t get in each other'’s way, and we don't insult the other girls. That'’s the only way we win. That's the only way we all get laid.

Nash (continuing): Adam Smith said, the best result comes from everyone in the group doing what'’s best for himself, right? That's what he said, right? Incomplete. Incomplete! Because the best result would come from everyone in the group doing what'’s best for himself and the group.

Hansen: Nash, if this is some way for you to get the blonde on your own, you can go to Hell.

Nash: Governing dynamics, gentlemen... governing dynamics. Adam Smith... was wrong.

I think there is a stereotype/fetish out there that Black men are especially attracted to thick white women and vice-versa (e.g. Lose weight, or be reduced to dating Black men! Oh, the horror. . .). To explain this phenomena some people point to different "African" standards of beauty, class issues, racial self-hatred and other factors. And those are all part of the picture. But something which occurs to me that another way to think about this situation is to say that on both sides, the relevant players have learned to "go for the brunette". Men judge women by their appearance. Women judge men by their status and earning power. And what happens in terms of relationships is that the different actors learn to swim in the part of the pool where they can handle the competition and certain equilibrium points are reached. First tier with first tier. Second tier with second tier. etc. However athletic, handsome, funny, etc. a black man is going to be "second tier" in terms of status. (e.g. consider all the personal ads where people openly declare a racial preference). However kind, intelligent, talented, a women who doesn't fit into anorexic standards of beauty is going to be "second tier" in terms of appearance. Thus the stereotype.

An article which shares some other insight on the issue of body image and romance among Black Americans asks the question Is the Size of Beauty Changing in the African American Community? and is also worth a look at.

The last brief remark I wanted to share on this general subject of relationships and game theory (which actually kind of inspired the whole entry) relates the concept of Nash equilibrium to romantic situations.

For those who don't know what a Nash equilibrium is, imagine a game of at least two players. Each player chooses a particular strategy. In a simple game, the strategies would be something like "always choose rock" or "randomly choose paper half the time and scissors half the time". A more complex game would have strategies like "be coy and play hard to get" or "be the bad boy since girls like that". So if you can imagine that all the players in a particular game have chosen a strategy, a Nash equilibrium would be a situation where no player has anything to gain by unilaterally changing that strategy. So a Nash equilibrium is a kind of stable place where the players would tend to adopt certain patterns of behavior which worked and stick to them.

When I began this entry and was thinking about the lives of my friends, I had initially wanted to make the claim that post-romantic break-up situations didn't seem to have Nash equilibria. I looked at the weirdness and foolishness they seemed to be going through where one person or another always wants a little more or a little less than the other person is willing to give.

But for his dissertation Nash proved that if you include what he calls mixed strategies every finite game has a Nash equilibrium. And as I'm writing now, more than a month after making my initial conjecture, it turns out that in spite of my early pessimism, the specific situation I had in mind actually has settled to a more or less stable point. And in my own way I've found some small but still surprising empirical confirmation of Nash's result, showing that mathematics occasionally has something relevant to say about our social lives. Pretty deep.

it's not what they call you, it's what you answer to

music and islam

The previous post, along with the discussion of fiqh differences got me thinking about how different Muslims view music. The general "orthodox" position for all four sunni schools is that most forms (or at least a very wide range) of music are actually prohibited but of course there are also classical scholars who disagree. And obviously the existence of a sizeable Muslim musical tradition, shows that in practice, Muslim behavior is generally more liberal on this point.

Music Good: Issue of singing and music in Islam
Music Bad: Legal Status of Music and Singing

If you accept the Bible, one of the more powerful arguments in favor of the value of music is the fact that the Psalms (the Zabur of David mentioned in the Quran) are a collection of songs. The musical aspects of the Zabur/Psalms are not as obvious in the Quran as they are in the Bible so Islamic scholars have not always accepted the claim that David's revelations were meant to be sung.

"if god is a dj"

For a long time now, I've realized that there is an intriguing comparison/contrast which can be made between the music and chanting which forms a part of sufi dhikr sessions and secular dance music played in clubs, (especially the less verbal genres like techno, house and trance). But recently when I heard the following lyric:

If God is a DJ
Life is a dance floor
Love is the rhythm
You are the music
If God is a DJ
Life is a dance floor
You get what you're given
its all how you use it
"If God is a DJ", Pink

it made me wonder if the lines had some antecedent among some form of Sufi poetry (e.g. "If God is a tabla player"?). It turns out I didn't find exactly what I was looking for but I did come across the following from musician and mystic, Hazrat Inayat Khan:

Why is music called the divine art, while all other arts are not so called? We may certainly see God in all arts and in all sciences, but in music alone we see God free from all forms and thoughts. In every other art there is idolatry. Every thought, every word has its form. Sound alone is free from form. Every word of poetry forms a picture in our mind. Sound alone does not make any object appear before us. Music, the word we use in our everyday language, is nothing less than the picture of the Beloved.

In some ways, Hazrat Inayat Khan is a controversial figure. Some people almost consider him to have played a large role in creating the false notion that Sufism is something which is seperate from Islam, instead of seeing that Sufism (tasawwuf, tazkiyah, the fiqh and science of acquiring ihsan) as something very integral to Islam. So I would say that he has definitely been influential, but I wouldn't recommend his works as a way to understand authentic Sufism. But in any case, if you want to get a sense of the rest of his opinions you can check out:
The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan
Wahiduddin's Hazrat Inayat Khan site

"better to light a candle..."

differences between schools

I'm intrigued by the prospect of trying to understand the differences between the madhabs. I know that people often try to gloss over the differences between the madhabs and say they are insignificant, but I'm not sure if that's right. Don't get me wrong. Unity is important. And it is important to have good adab when it comes to these issues and see them in their proper perspectives. The differences between the madhabs are issues where pious, sincere, intelligent and knowledgable Muslim scholars can disagree, so they shouldn't be cause for arrogance, takfirs or insults.

At the same time, they are rooted in differences in methodology and principle. And even thought more than one position can be "correct", in some sense only one is "right".

One interesting group with which to illustrate the above are the Murabitun. They are sometimes called "extremist Malikis" because their shaykh (Abdalqadir as-Sufi) has some strong things to say in favor of Imam Malik and the example laid down by the early Muslim community in Medina. To be honest, I think they definitely cross the line in terms of not being tolerant enough of the other Sunni schools

From The Recovery of True Islamic Fiqh (the title almost says it all) by Abdalhaqq Bewley:

The received position regarding the madhabs is that they are virtually identical with certain insignificant peripheral differences and the whole business is really a matter of geography so that if you live in Malaysia or Indonesia you are automatically Shafi'i, if you live in India or Turkey you are Hanafi, and if you live in North or West Africa you are Maliki, and it doesn't matter which because they are basically all the same. When he investigated the matter, however, Shaykh Abdalqadir rediscovered something which proved crucial in his search for the genuine Book and Sunna. What he discovered was that the madhhabs were by no means identical and in actual fact represented quite divergent methods of deciding what constituted the Book and Sunna.

The madhhab of Imam Abu Hanifa, may Allah cover him with mercy, was formulated in Iraq, a very different environment to that of Madina al-Munawwara where the deen had been laid down, and the number of Companions who had settled there had been too few to allow a complete picture of the Sunna to emerge. For this reason Hanafi methodology involved the logical process of examining the Book and all available knowledge of the Sunna and then finding an example in them analogous to the particular case under review so that Allah's deen could be properly applied in the new situation. It thus entails the use of reason in the examination of the Book and Sunna so as to extrapolate the judgements necessary for the implementation of Islam in a new environment. It represents in essence, therefore, within the strict compass of rigorous legal and inductive precepts, the adaptation of the living and powerful deen to a new situation in order to enable it take root and flourish in fresh soil. This made it an ideal legal tool for the central governance of widely varied populations which is why we find it in Turkey as the legacy of the Uthmaniyya Khilafa and in the sub-continent where it is inherited from the Moghul empire.

[...] With Imam Shafi'i... the practise of Islam ceased to be a matter of oral transmission and behavioural imitation and became, instead, based on written texts from which the actions of the deen were derived. Imam Shafi'i's system was brilliantly devised and the Muslims owe a great debt of gratitude to him because there is no doubt that it is the rigour of his methodology which preserved so many of the sources of Islam in such a remarkable way over all these centuries.

Shaykh Abdalqadir's desire, however, was to have direct access to the Book and Sunna in their primal form as they were first implemented by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and his Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, and both these methods presented the phenomenon at one remove so they were clearly not what he was seeking. It was with Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, that the shaykh found what he had been looking for.

I would want to say a couple of things. First I would note that Abdalqadir seems to believe that through Imam Malik one can have "direct access to the Book and Sunna in their primal form" as if this was impossible with the other madhabs. In fact, there are other passages in his writings where he is more negative about the other schools of thought.

But secondly, I was really attracted to his description of the Hanafi methodology (at least in the above passage). I actually like the idea of Islam not being tied to a particular community in a particular time and place. It is a living and powerful deen which can be adapted to new cultural soil. There are some specific ways that the Hanafi school does give a little more weight to reason and is flexible in certain areas (while, of course, being stricter in others) In fact, I'm tempted to say that I'm a Hanafi almost in the same way that the Murabitun say they are Maliki... although hopefully I'm a lot mellower about it than they are.

For a more balanced, but still meaty, description of the development of different schools of fiqh and the differences between them, I would recommend: Source Methodology In Islamic Jurisprudence: Methodology for Research and Knowledge by Taha Jabir Al 'Alwani which is available free online.

Another good book (which I've linked to before) is the Ethics of Disagreement in Islam, also by Al 'Alwani. There are useful comparisons between the schools throughout the book, but the most concise and inclusive descriptions are found in chapter 6 on juristic perspectives.

Also here is a brief article: Which of the four orthodox madhabs has the most developed fiqh for Muslims living as minorities? by Nuh Ha Mim Keller (his answer, basically Maliki and Hanafi) Interestingly enough, apparently when Sheikh Keller had to decide which madhab to follow, the story goes, that he put the four names into a hat and randomly picked "Shafi".

And finally another good text is: The Fundamental Principles of Imam Malik's Fiqh by Muhammad Abu Zahrah. Obviously it is written from a Maliki perspective but what is interesting (to me at least) is that it gives a sizeable list of the various principles and considerations a mufti would keep in mind when evaluating whether a particular action is halal/ haram/ sunnah/ makruh/ etc... I think it gives a really good sense that fiqh is not just a matter of finding the right ayat of the Quran or finding a single hadith and acting on it. A lot of thought goes into such decisions which is why the schools developed in the first place.

And for some early comments related to the Hanafi school, check out: people of direction

murabitun gathering

I've been thinking about the Murabitun movement recently. A few days ago someone mentioned them to me out of the blue, and I was actually already planning to blog a little about them momentarily when I found the following from You Tube: Footage of a Murabitun Sufi dhikr session in Granada, Spain during the 1980's

Grenada's past:
islam in latin america

islamic ecumenism

From The American Muslim, I thought I would include Shia-Sunni Dialogue: Maulana Kalbe Sadiq's Theology of Islamic Ecumenism by Yoginder Sikand as another "obligatory" su-shi piece to contribute to the Su-shi blog ring. Just a bright spot and example of Muslim unity.

willie lynch: the next chapter

Rand Report's attempt to change Islam lets the cat out of the bag and describes explicit plans on the part of Western policy-makers to divide-and-conquer the Muslim world. Old dog. Old tricks.

fatima's hand

For a while now I've been kind of intrigued by the image of Fatima's hand (Jews call it the hand of Miriam). First, it is interesting that both Jewish and Muslim cultures would share a common "religious symbol" (really more of a good luck charm). And it is interesting to me personally because growing up, my family would occasionally make references to "mal de ojo" or the evil eye (a concept which exists in Muslim, as well as Latino cultures). The idea behind Fatima's hand is that it protects you from the evil eye by "looking back" at the source of the curse. I don't think of myself as superstitious and am not interested in "amulets" but I think I would like to use the image for decoration, maybe on a ring.

religion or ideology?

Imam Zaid Shakir recently wrote an article called Islam: Religion or Ideology? on the dangers of viewing Islam superficially as a political ideology:

Reducing Islam to an ideology threatens to subordinate those laws and principles to political imperatives that have little to do with Islamic teachings. If this happens consistently enough, the social foundation of our religion may be lost. As Muslims we may well continue in our various struggles. However, those struggles would be better informed by the revolutionary teachings of Bakunin, Georges Sorel, Rosa Luxemburg, Lenin, Mao, Che Guevara, and others than by the revelation given to our Prophet Muhammad, Peace and Blessings of God upon him. In some circumstances, we could possibly muster a credible defense against any number of threats confronting us. However, at the end of the day, we may find that we have very little left to defend.

quran and woman

I recently finished Amina Wadud's book Quran and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective. It was basically an exemplar of how to look at the Quran in a way which is consistent with justice and equality between men and women. The first part of the book was well done but in some respects it was similar to things I've read before... empahsizing female equality in the Quranic story of Adam and Eve, or Bilqis (the Queen of Sheba) or the high station of Mary.

The latter part of the book gets into the nitty gritty of Quranic social roles and gender and here Wadud gives some careful but plausible explanations for how certain texts can be read in ways which maximize women's rights. So she spends a couple of pages each on key terms like "darajah", "faddala", "daraba" and "qawwamun".

And I thought she had a particularly fresh perspective on the subject of female witnesses:

In 2:282 the Quran says:

O you who believe! when you deal with each other in contracting a debt for a fixed time, then write it down [...] but if he who owes the debt is unsound in understanding, or weak, or (if) he is not able to dictate himself, let his guardian dictate with fairness; and call in to witness from among your men two witnesses; but if there are not two men, then one man and two women from among those whom you choose to be witnesses, so that if one of the two errs, the second of the two may remind the other [...]

And a typical patriarchal reading uses this passage as evidence that a woman's testimony is less valuable or reliable than a man's. But Wadud suggests that the second woman is there, not because of female inferiority but as a corrective to the pre-existing patriarchy.

"If one goes wrong, or is persuaded to give untrue testimony, the other is there to support the terms of the contract. However, considering that women could be coerced in that society, if one witness was female, she would be easy prey for some male who wanted to force her to disclaim her testimony. When there are two women, they can support each other [...] The single unit which comprises two women with distinct functions not only gives each woman significant individual worth, but also forms a united front against the other witness."

All in all, I would recommend the book as providing good food for thought.

I want to say a lot more but I still need to get my thoughts together. For the past couple of years I've become more appreciative and respectful of the idea of tradition and orthodoxy (especially in terms of acts of worship and theology) but I'm still not absolutely certain what that means in terms of "progressive" values. A while back this tension became more salient for me when Amina Wadud raised the issue of female imams leading prayers for mixed congregations. I tended to think that if one could produce a scholarly, methodologically-sound argument based on authentic sources that was one thing... but I got the sense that many of the laypeople who argued against Wadud's position weren't necessarily motivated by such objective considerations.

More later... perhaps...

Grenada's past:
amina wadud interview
gender jihad
zaid shakir and female imams

my journey as a muslimah

I just "discovered" a new blog called My Journey as a Muslimah from Sumayah Fayed, a Hispanic Muslim woman writer. Say hello.

latino muslims seek answers

"Am I still a Chicano?" he asked. "We have this Islamic identity and, being Latino, we have this Catholic background. I'm not Christian anymore, but am I still Latino? We're redefining what Latino is."

I already gave a shout-out to the new blog on Latino Muslims in the Bay Area. Now, Inside Bay Area magazine has recently published a story: Latino Muslims seek answers on a group of Latino Muslims which has started to come together with the help of the Zaytuna Institute.

"the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few"

The previously mentioned connection between Star Trek and (the allegedly Jesus-inspired) A Course in Miracles also reminded me of the following scene from the South Park episode, "Spontaneous Combustion":

Stan: See, at first, Jesus was all like, "Why me?" And he was all pissed off and stuff. But then he saw that what mattered most was everybody else. So he stopped thinking about his own misery, and did what had to be done. Right as Jesus was dying he raised his hand [Stan makes the Vulcan salute] and said, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

Randy: You're right, Stanley. You're absolutely right. Hey, that Bible sounds like kind of a good book.

Stan: It ain't bad. You should try reading it some time.

Kyle: Dude, that was "Star Trek" again! "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few"—that was Wrath of Khan!

Stan: Oh... Bible, Wrath of Khan, what's the difference?

cause he is the truth

I was just struck by the fact that as I was finishing up the previous piece on what is "real" and what "isn't" India.Arie was on the radio singing:

Cause he is the truth
Said he is so real
And i love the way that he makes me feel
And if i am a reflection of him then i must be fly
Cause his light, it shines so bright

Although, if you listen to the whole thing, I think it becomes clear that the subject of the song is more biological than theological.

nothing unreal exists

The other day, I had a conversation with a friend who is in the middle of reading A Course in Miracles, a popular spiritual self-help book which was allegedly authored by Jesus and transmitted through a medium, a clinical psychologist named Dr. Helen Schucman.

While hanging out with my friend, I skimmed through the book and found that the central principles are summarized as:

Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.

And eventually the conversation moved around to discussing deep subjects like pantheism, Christian Science and wahdat al-wujud (which are all related to redrawing the line between what is real and what is not). But I'm such a big geek that the first thing I thought of was that scene at the beginning of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home where Spock is being tested by a computer which asks him a series of rapid-fire questions, including: "What was Kiri-kin-tha's first law of metaphysics?" and the answer, of course is, "Nothing unreal exists".

A Course in Miracles has been circulating at least a decade before The Voyage Home came out so I wouldn't be totally surprised if ACIM influenced the Star Trek writers. In fact, real religions often inspire fictional philosophies and belief systems (Dune and Star Wars are two examples which come to mind and which we've discussed here before).

But what is even more surprising is when the influence goes the other way and fiction influences reality.

For example, some of the Church of Scientology's closely guarded beliefs resemble a science-fiction adventure. And some have even suggested that Scientology was invented as the result of a bar bet between the two science fiction authors L. Ron Hubbard and Robert Heinlein. It seems like this most entertaining version of this legend is false, but there seems to be more substantial evidence that L. Ron Hubbard rather cynically suggested starting a religion as a way to make money [1] [2]

A less well-known fact is that Robert Heinlein's science fiction classic, Stranger in a Strange World also inspired the creation of an actual religious group known as the Church of All Worlds.

And of course there was the Jedi census prank a while back, where in several English-speaking countries a large number of people answered "jedi" when asked their religion on the census. ("Jedi" came out as the second largest religion in New Zealand and fourth largest in England and Wales, beating out Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism) I actually knew I guy once who did Qi Gong and in a light-hearted way he called it his "jedi training".

So sometimes, fiction can seem remarkably substantial and have a surprising amount of impact on the world. And conversely, sometimes the things we take for granted, or are frightened of, or take "seriously" turn out to be unreal at the root. (I think I'm going to stop babbling now before I fall into my navel, and will just do a link dump).

wahdat al-wujud explained by Ustadha Umm Sahl (it is actually more a defense of Abd al-Ghani al-Nablusi, a traditional Hanafi scholar on a number of points, including wahdat al-wujud). Interestingly enough, the Deobandis, whom I have been mentioning recently, also seem to have a strong belief in this mystical doctrine.

Official Site: A Course in Miracles
Wikipedia: A Course in Miracles

Screenplay of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Tongue-in-check discussion and extrapolation of Kiri-Kin-tha’s Laws of Metaphysics

The Pagan Library: The Church of All Worlds, A Brief History

Grenada's past:
unusual churches
only human
bokononism
religion in science fiction
a coincidence you think this is?
so i finally saw it

"i saw the bullet cry, i heard the man fall"

I've included a number of references to Louis Reyes Rivera (aka the Janitor of History) before on Planet Grenada, but this is probably the most "Grenada-esque" (An Afro-Latino writer giving a "contributive note" to a Black and Muslim and human hero). It is a beautiful spoken word piece by Rivera on the assassination of Malcolm X which he performed on Def Poetry Jam. I also have to admit that Def Jam is where I first heard of Rivera... which is a shame since he has been around for a while.

see also:
louis reyes rivera
inside the river of poetry
filiberto ojeda rios

more on heru, the pan-african spoken-word artist

I already blogged about Heru a few months ago but here is a second helping. To be honest, I'm actually kind of proud of him. I guess I could see the some of the seeds back in high school, so I can't say that he's totally re-invented himself, but still... he's managed to bloom. Now he's Heru the dreadlocked poet "from Miami", with a daughter no less. Here's to new beginnings and second-chances.

You Tube: Heru on the tv show, Spoken

a deobandi with a difference

Also from The American Muslim site is the article A Deobandi With A Difference: Waris Mazhari on the Imrana Affair by Yoginder Sikand.

This is an old story, but the piece is a good example of how one can interpret the Shairah in ways which take social realities into account while remaining orthodox and faithful to tradition. If you aren't familiar with Imrana's case, it has to do with a Muslim woman who was raped by her father-in-law. Subsequently the religious authorities, based on Hanafi legal principles, made the contraversial declaration that her marriage to her husband was dissolved (and thus she could no longer live with him). But Waris Mazhari, a Hanafi scholar, argues that the situation constitutes an unbearable hardship on Imrana and justifies following one of the other three sunni schools (where the marriage would not have been dissolved).

I found the piece especially interesting because I've recently been trying to get a better understanding of the Hanafi madhab (including the Deobandis, Barelwis, and certain Turkish movements as well)

See also:
HU: Imrana and the Shariah Controversy
Hardnews: a matter of opinion

spanish muslim woman jailed in florida

This story is a couple of months old but it is really ironic and somewhat fitting for the blog. I only recently found it at The American Muslim Online page (And I plan on including a few other links to their articles over time. It's a pretty good collection).

TAMPA, FL, (4/13/2006) -A Spanish Muslim woman was allegedly interrogated for more than six hours, strip-searched and placed in a maximum security lock-up following her arrival at Tampa International Airport on Tuesday. She was also forced to remove her religiously-mandated head scarf, or hijab, while in detention. Her ex-husband once spent time in an Iraqi prison for speaking out against Saddam Hussein and has been recognized by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush as a symbol of progress in Iraq.

St. Petersburg Times: Surprise turns sour for Iraqi-born woman
The American Muslim: Spanish Muslim Denied Entry to U.S., Jailed in Florida

ideology and temperament (the habashis)

A sufi response to political Islamism: Al-Ahbash of Lebanon by A. Nizar Hamzeh and R. Hrair Dekmejian is an interesting article, a bit on the old side (10 years) but I've been thinking about it again for various reasons.

Firstly, Lebanon is obviously in the news and so I've wondered to what extent the Habashis (more correctly known as Association of Islamic Charitable Projects) are still active and relevant to the situation over there.

Secondly, on a more personal note, about a year before I started practicing Islam, one of the individuals I had a lot of religious conversations with was this recently converted African-American in the AICP who worked in the local Afrocentric store. I really didn't have much of a notion of the various ideological currents among Muslims so at the time. I only had the sense that he was "orthodox". I also knew that somehow he was "Sufi" but I definitely had an overly romanticized notion of what that meant. Although I have to admit that he really struck me as a pretty deep and calm brother.

On the other hand, shortly after I became Muslim I ran into him and we talked a bit about Islam. It was nice to see him again but at the same time it was a bit disillusioning. Mainly because he was freely declaring takfir on all sorts of people from Seyd Qutb, Ibn Taymiyyah and Abdul-Wahab (who I'd hardly heard of at the time) to Warithdeen Muhammad (for allegedly saying that Allah has a nose) and Yusuf Ali (for writing in his translation of the Quran that "Allah is the light"). This brother made NO allowance for poetry or metaphor. Then my Hasbashi friend emphasized, to an extraordinary degree, the importance of wudu (He didn't say anything that was incorrect as far as I remember but I don't think he appreicated how he sounded to a new Muslim.) The other thing which was really weird about our conversation was that he also made a big deal about how the proper qibla is southeast. ("We are west of Mecca and north of Mecca so we should pray south and east"). Even at that point I understood something about geodesics and actually told him "but the world isn't flat" but I didn't want to be pushy so I let the matter drop. (And before we laugh too hard at his reasoning, I've read on multiple occasions that when Muslim immigrants first came to the US in large numbers, they also tended to pray southeast instead of northeast.)

To this day, I'm still not completely certain how much of his rigidity was a product of the typical convert's initial zeal (his temperament) and how much of it is representative of Habashis as a movement (his ideology). I have the sense that it was a little bit of both.

In retrospect, I think his sincere zeal for "orthodoxy" gave him an enviable sense of place and confidence. He would rattle off: "We are Ash'ari in aqida, Shafi in Fiqh and Rifai in Tariqa." Everything is in books. Every question has an answer. It is a stark contrast to my own path, tentatively and more slowly gaining an appreciation in turn for being Sunni, for the Hanafi madhab, and the Maturidi aqueeda. As far as tariqats go, at this point I've only had contact with Naqshbandis and Shadhilis but haven't really made a strong commitment to either.

The third reason why I think the Habashis are worth mentioning is because they are interesting in terms of su-shi issues. In spite of their apparent rigidness, they apparently take positions which could conceivably help bridge some of the disagreements between Sunnis and Shias. From the Hamzeh and Dekmejian article:

The complex structure of Shaykh Habashi's belief system blends elements of Sunni and Shi'i theology with Sufi spiritualism. The outcome of his doctrinal eclecticism is an ideology of Islamic moderation and toleration that emphasizes Islam's innate pluralism, along with opposition to political activism and the use of violence against the ruling order.

And the article goes on to explain how the Sunni Shaykh Habashi argues on behalf of the status of Ali, Fatima, Hassan and Hussayn and is critical of Mu'awiya as a transgressor.

Finally, something I wonder about, and would like to see more discussion on is what is going on with their nickname, "the Habashis" (the Ethiopians)? Are they really the dominant Islamic movement in Ethiopia? Or are there no other prominent movements coming out of that area which exist in the Muslim world? That's just weird when I stop and think about it.

If people have their own experiences with "the Habashis" I'd be happy to hear them.

roots in the sand

This is just so random that I felt like sharing. Roots in the Sand is a film on Punjabi-Mexicans in Southern California about a hundred years ago.

ideology and temperament

Something I've been thinking about for a long time is the tendency for some folks to frame significant differences between Muslims in ideological terms. Sunni, Shia, Sufi, Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi, Hanbali, Khawarij, Salafi, Wahabi, 12-er, 5-er, 7-er, Quran-only, Islamist, Reformer, Orthodox, Traditional, Liberal, Conservative, Moderate, Progressive, Modern, etc.

I feel like talking about this over a couple posts, but one thing I wanted to get across is fixating on labels can be dangerous. And in any case, temperament is a more significant distinction than any ideological label.

What do I mean by that?

It used to be that your basic anti-Islamic bigot would just say "I hate Muslims." and be done with it. But now in the enlightened 21st century, it is harder to say that in polite society so the educated person will say "No, Muslims aren't all the same. Some are good Muslims, and some are bad Muslims. You should say 'I hate Wahabis'".

And on television it is not uncommon to see the bigot who wants to sound more sophisticated saying such things.

Now, I'm not a Wahabi (follower of the interpretations of Abdul-Wahab) but in spite of the feelings I have about that movement, I also think there are plenty of Wahabis who are perfectly wonderful people. And in spite of my various disagreements with Wahabi ideology, I'm more than a bit worried at the prospect that somebody in the State Department trying to distinguish between the "good Muslims" and the "bad Muslims" on the basis of that distinction.

I'm not sure if I should be saying this, but right now there is also a very widespread idea that the "Sufis" are the "good Muslims". And from a certain point of view, I wouldn't want to put much energy into opposing this notion. "The Sufis" tend to emphasize the mystical, spiritual aspects of Islam and are in certain respects less legalistic. They have tended to express themselves in poetry and music and are associated with some of the more creative aspects of Islamic civilization. Rumi, Al-Hallaj, Hafiz and other "Sufis" are also very appealing to non-Muslims. And in general, throughout Muslim history, Sufis have played a very important role in spreading Islam to non-Arab peoples. (In fact I would say that Sufism is basically "just" the essential and very orthodox aspect of Islamic spirituality)

Furthermore, among the 4 sunni schools of law (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi and Hanbali) the Hanafis are often described as the most liberal and the most rational. (And I generally don't get into talking about madhab issues on this blog but I'm basically a "Hanafi" myself. I have two crates of Hanafi books, mostly from Turkey and the sub-continent which I use as references if I have fiqh questions).

The "funny" thing is that the Taliban were both Sufis and Hanafis. So much for labels. In fact, if you consider Al-Qaedah (sometimes problematically identified as "Wahabi"), the Taliban (strict Hanafis) and Hezbollah (Shia) or even the Paris rioters (many of whom were secular) the groups are very distinct in terms of ideology. What makes them "militant" has more to do with their attitudes (towards the West, towards various Muslim governments, towards the use of violence) than the specific ins and outs of their theology. I just hope that the various Western governments can keep that in mind before anyone is tempted to round up the Wahabis, or the Hanafis, etc.

scholars ask why latinos view blacks poorly

Diverse Online: Scholars Ask Why Latinos View Blacks Poorly by Christina Asquith summarizes a 2003 survey of blacks, whites and Hispanics (mostly Mexican) in Durham, NC. The "punchline" is that Hispanic attitudes towards blacks were more negative than white attitudes towards blacks. It would be interesting to see if the same results were replicated in a sample which includes more Afro-Hispanics (Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, etc.)

"other than that ms. lincoln, how was the play?"

It's been a while since I filled-out one of these blog quizzes.
I'm cracking up about getting this result. It fits on multiple levels.

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com