the years of rice and salt (part one)

So I'm in the middle of reading The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson. The book is a work of alternative historical fiction with an intriguing premise: What if the Black Death had been more total in its impact, rendering the Christian West only a marginal actor in subsequent world history? Chinese and Islamic civilizations become dominant in the world. The Americas are primarily settled by the Japanese (but Native American cultures are able to continue in a stronger form than they do in our world). An ex-alchemist plants the foundation for classical chemistry and physics in Samarqand. And so it goes.

To be honest, I'm a little bit disappointed with the novel at the moment. I love the premise, but the book doesn't really seem to make the most of its setting(s). To provide continuity, the novel follows the souls of a small group of associates (a jati) as they reincarnate through multiple times and places through the centuries. But instead of fleshing out the broad trends and events of this alternate history, the novel focuses on the personal development of these souls across lifetimes. The result (so far) is a story which could just as easily been set in our own past. Hopefully, as the story goes on and as the histories diverge more, Robinson will give the reader a greater sense of how this other world differs from our own.

Wikipedia: The Years of Rice and Salt

from cross to crescent

From Cross to Crescent: Why Latinos are increasingly converting to Islam by Anthony Chiorazzi is another typical human-interest story on Latinos and Islam. This article stands out because it offers a glimpse of Islam in Cuba:

Islamic prayers mingled with the bustling sounds of traffic as he prostrated himself in prayer in a little mosque in Havana, Cuba, recalls Diego Santos, a Cuban-American who traveled to the communist state not long ago to visit his family.

A recent convert to Islam and a writer who prefers not to use his real name, Santos says that Islam in Cuba—like in America—is becoming more visible and that during his stay he found no attempt to repress it. In fact, after jum’a, Friday prayers, Santos talked openly in Spanish about Islam with fellow Muslims while strolling down the crowded streets of old Havana, even passing the government offices of the Cuban Community for the Defense of the Revolution, which has a notorious reputation for being the snitch center for Cuban rule breakers. "Nobody was hiding their Islam in Havana," says Santos.

Back in Los Angeles, Santos attends meetings of the Los Angeles Latino Muslim Association (LALMA), an organization working to help inform the Latino community about Islam. Santos says as a Cuban-American that he has been well embraced by the Muslim community in America because his conversion confirms Islam as a universal religion. Santos hopes that more people will understand that Islam is for everyone whether they live in Europe, America or even Cuba.

"i like a little salt on my cracker"

I haven't given y'all a dose of Paul Mooney in a while...

The last I heard (and posted...) in the wake of the Richard's rant, Mooney vowed to stop using the "n-word". I'm not sure whether the current Mooney excerpt comes before his promise or after, but in any case it is not for the linguistically faint-hearted. (It is also brief, but rather Grenada-esque, including comments on Arabs, 9/11, and Afro-Latinos along with Mooney's typical material).


[REPLACEMENT LINK 2/3/2011]

Paul Mooney and Planet Grenada

when is a bigot not a bigot?

You may have heard about the recent minor controversy involving the Rev. Al Sharpton and his comments related to Mormons during a debate between him and Christopher Hitchens at the New York Public Library. Hitchens is the recent best-selling author of the anti-theistic God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything and he debated Sharpton on the existence of God.

Hitchens point is that religion in general (and thus Mormonism in particular) plays a negative role in society. In fact, one of the sections of his book is even called: Mormonism: A Racket becomes a Religion. More specifically, Hitchens is the one who, in the debate with Sharpton, first mentions Mitt Romney (a Mormon) and his candidacy for President, along wth the fact that until quite recently the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints officially supported a number of clearly racist doctrines.

So is Hitchens in trouble for his scathing barbs against Mormonism? Not as far as I can tell. Instead people seem to be all over Al Sharpton for making a relatively mild and light-hearted political swipe at Mitt Romney ("As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways") What kind of sense does that make? It is ok to dismiss an entire belief system as a racist poison, but it is unforgivable bigotry for a former Democratic Presidential candidate to suggest that a current Republican candidate won't win?

To be honest, I think that at least two things are going on. First, folks like to salivate over anything which even smells like hypocrisy. So especially in the wake of Al Sharpton's role in the recent Don Imus controversy, the white public will definitely derive a special satisfaction from the idea that Sharpton himself could be caught making insensitive comments.

Secondly, as a Presidential contender, it is probably in Romney's political interests to win points and publicity by positioning himself against a controversial figure like Sharpton. But ironies abound. The religiously conservative Romney attacks the clergyman but leaves alone the blatantly anti-religious, anti-Mormon intellectual.

If you would like to view Sharpton's (and Hitchens') comments in their original context you can check out Al Sharpton and Christopher Hitchens at FORA.tv.

the gospel from outer space

For a number of different reasons I've been thinking a bit about fictional belief systems and mythologies these days (e.g. Kurt Vonnegut's Bokononism). I've also been thinking about liberation theology. The two sort of come together in the following excerpt from Slaughterhouse-Five:

The Gospel from Outer Space

It was The Gospel from Outer Space, by Kilgore Trout. It was about a visitor from outer space, shaped very much like a Tralfamadorian, by the way. The visitor from outer space made a serious study of Christianity, to learn, if he could, why Christians found it so easy to be cruel. He concluded that at least part of the trouble was slipshod storytelling in the New Testament. He supposed that the intent of the Gospels was to teach people, among other things, to be merciful, even to the lowest of the low.
But the Gospels actually taught this: Before you kill somebody, make absolutely sure he isn't well connected. So it goes.

The flaw in the Christ stories, said the visitor from outer space, was that Christ, who didn't look like much, was actually the Son of the Most Powerful Being of the Universe. Readers understood that, so, when they came to the crucifixion, they naturally thought, and Rosewater read out loud again:
Oh, boy -- they sure picked the wrong guy to lynch that time!
And then that thought had a brother: "There are right people to lynch." Who? People not well connected. So it goes.

The visitor from outer space made a gift to Earth of a new Gospel. In it, Jesus really was a nobody, and a pain in the neck to a lot of people with better connections than he had. He still got to say all the lovely and puzzling things he said in the other Gospels.
So the people amused themselves one day by nailing him to a cross and planting the cross in the ground. There couldn't possibly be any repercussions, the lynchers thought. The reader would have to think that, too, since the new Gospel hammered home again and again what a nobody Jesus was.
And then, just before the nobody died, the heavens opened up, and there was thunder and lightning. The voice of God came crashing down. He told the people that he was adopting the bum as his son, giving him the full powers and privileges of The Son of the Creator of the Universe throughout all eternity. God said this: From this moment on, He will punish horribly anybody who torments a bum who has no connections!

Reminds me a bit of the previous discussion on Cornel West and Constantinian Christianity in islam and the passion (for social justice)

blogroll woes

Man, I really need to update my blogroll. I just added a few new blogs (mostly from Black Muslim women) but I should probably take some time to redesign the whole thing from scratch.

spanish immigration ploy: hire mothers

I just heard this story on the radio and thought it would be suitable for Planet Grenada:

NPR: Spanish Immigration Ploy: Hire Mothers
In order to aquire agricultural laborers without encouraging illegal immigration, Spanish farmowners have begun a guest worker program which targets Moroccan mothers in order to pick fruit. In general, they don't drink, don't smoke, or go go to the discos and when the work is done they will have a strong incentive to go back home. This is in contrast to "las rubias" (the blondes) from Eastern Europe who tended to spice up the local nightlife for young Spanish men.

See also:
Spiegel Online International: Moroccan Immigrants, Spanish Strawberries and Europe's Future by Daniela Gerson in Cartaya, Spain

liberative theology of islam

For a nice but general overview of Islam as a liberation theology, you can check out Liberative theology of Islam by Asghar Ali Engineer, a former member of the Dawoodi Bohra community.

the way of sufi chivalry

Another continuation of the greater jihad: a muslim art of war:

The Way of Sufi Chivalry by Ibn al-Husayn al-Sulami (translated by Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi). The Arabic term translated as "chivalry" is futuwwah. In Arabic, fata literally means a handsome, brave youth. But the book goes on to explain that based on its use in the Quran, the word came to mean "the ideal, noble and perfect man whose hospitality and generosity would extend until he had nothing left for himself; a man who would give all, including his life, for the sake of his friends." (the term is used to describe Abraham in the Quran [21:60] when he destroys the idols of his people.)

Al-Sulami's work doesn't have a martial emphasis, but instead focuses on spiritual attributes associated with the concept of futuwwah.

Also if you are interested in the subject, a Naqshbandi page in a similar vein discusses Spiritual Chivalry or Futuwwah.

the hankyoreh

This piece is old but never-posted... it resonates somewhat with the open-souce religion article. The Bible isn't exactly a Wiki but apparently some folks are still willing to engage in some pretty radical re-evaluations of the text.

The Hankyoreh: Scholar ignites controversy over comments regarding Old Testament is an article about well-known Korean philosopher and critic Do-ol Kim Young-oak and his arguments against the literal interpretation of the Bible and in support of doing away with the Old Testament. It seems like a repetition of the ancient "Heresy" of Marcionism.

Grenada's past:
alan moore and organized religion
moore organized religion

open source religion

Recently I received a comment on an older post about "Natural Islam" and Anarchism and I started to think again about what the overlap between Islam and Anarchism can look like. It made me want to check out Daniel Sieradski's (Jewish) Orthodox Anarchist blog, which I hadn't read in a while. A few clicks afterwards I came across the provocative phrase "open source Judaism" and the more general concept of "open source religion". From there I started reading a little about Yoism which calls itself "the world's first open source religion". After browsing their homepage a bit I realized that I sort of knew one of the founders of Yoism! (We were in the same organization at one point).

Yoism seems an interesting novelty but I'm not sure how "deep" it is. The founders are basically secular folks looking for meaning who decided to take their favorite quotes from various philosophers and scientists and scenes from their favorite South Park and Simpsons episodes, stick them all in a blender, and call it a religion. Their main religious text, the Book of Yo, is a work in progress (and is literally a Wiki).

In spite of converting from one religion to another, I think that due to my upbringing I still have a traditionalist bias when it comes to certain religious issues. Ideally religion is supposed to be something transcendent which guides and inspires humans with certain values, even when prevailing social currents point in other directions. But a religion like Yoism fundamentally incapable of doing that because it naturally sinks to the lowest common denominator. It can't help but be a product of the egos of its members.

But I really don't mean to be totally dismissive of this approach. For a moderate, reasonable example of an "open source" approach to religion (specifically Islam) you could read Open Ijtihad from Ideant (a blog by Ulises Ali Mejias... a pretty thoughtful guy in his own right and husband to Asma Barlas).

Thoughts?

bin laden

I'm not going to say I endorse the song "Bin Laden", but I've blogged about Immortal Technique and Mos Def here before so I figured I would put the video up and invite comments.

I'm baptized by America and covered in leeches
The dirty water that bleaches your soul and your facial features
Drownin' you in propaganda that they spit through the speakers
And if you speak about the evil that the government does
The Patriot Act'll track you to the type of your blood
They try to frame you, and say you was tryna sell drugs
And throw a federal indictment on niggaz to show you love
This shit is run by fake Christians, fake politicians
Look at they mansions, then look at the conditions you live in
All they talk about is terrorism on television
They tell you to listen, but they don't really tell you they mission
They funded Al-Qaeda, and now they blame the Muslim religion
Even though Bin Laden, was a CIA tactician
They gave him billions of dollars, and they funded his purpose
Fahrenheit 9/11, that's just scratchin' the surface

immortal technique: two interviews
3500 years ago...
final call interview with immortal technique
a revolution in the middle east
immortal technique and adisa banjoko
mos def's piece on assata shakur

soliloquies of a stranger

Say hello to Soliloquies of A Stranger The life of an African American, Muslim, Muhaajirah (Expat), from the hood, in an Inter-Racial Marriage. It Doesn’t get any stranger than that!

hispanic muslim day

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center

invites the community to attend their first

Hispanic Muslim Day

"The Pathway to Islam"

Saturday May 12, 2007 starting at 11:00AM to 5:00PM

Presenting:

The Beauty of Family in Islam

By Muhammad Isa Garcia from Argentina

Graduate of Umm Al Qura University in Makkah,

College of Da'wah , Hadith and Tafsir

Followed by

Understanding New Muslims: My experience as an Hispanic Muslim

A panel of Hispanic brothers and sisters discussing their experience in Islam

All lectures will be in English and Spanish

Hosted by:

Imam Abdul Malik Johari

and

Sheikh Shaker Al Sayyed,

Imam of Dar Al Hijrah

Includes a tour of the mosque and lunch

Be sure to bring your family and friends

For more information please contact

Imam Abdul Malik Johari at 202 345-5233

Musulmanes_hispanos@yahoo.com for Spanish and English

or check out Dar Al Hijrah's Website

amazin' man

So I finally saw The Last King of Scotland today. It is a work of fiction, framed as a memoir by a young Scottish doctor who becomes the personal physician of Idi Amin.

In some ways, the film is very reminiscent of Cry Freedom which focuses on another African leader (in this case, anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko who was played by Denzel Washington). So in both films the viewer gets a peek into the life of an important African figure. In both cases this figure is played by a high-caliber African-American actor (Forrest Whitaker actually won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Idi Amin). Also, in both cases, the story is told through the eyes of a peripherial white character. So in a fairly descriptive sense, one can say that neither film seems very Afrocentric. Less like Hamlet and more like Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.

The Last King of Scotland also brought back memories of a novelty song I remember hearing on the radio many years ago called Amazin' Man which features Idi Amin as a calypso singer. I didn't think much (or know) about it back then, but Idi Amin is parodied by John Bird, a white English actor so there is something of a "minstrel" vibe to the performance. On the other hand, anyone with the deaths of 300,000 people on their hands is getting off lightly if all they faced was an insulting and insensitive parody.

orthodox rebels

What follows are brief summaries (largely excerpted from the links given below) of how the four orthodox Sunni Imams related to the government authorities of their day. At the very least, they all experienced a certain amount of tension and in most cases, they endured some serious reprisals at the hand of the state for challenging the authorities.


Imam Abu Hanifa

In the year 146 A.H, Abu Hanifah was sent to prison by Mansur, the leader at the time, after the Imam’s refusal to state that Mansur was the rightful khalifa, as well as refusing the position of presidency of the supreme court in recompense. Whilst in prison Imam Abu Hanifah was thrashed with a stick. Mansur repented and sent the Imam money, only to be refused again. By now Imam Abu Hanifah had become well known and thousands flocked to meet and seek his opinion wherever he went. His imprisonment far from reduced his popularity, and Mansur realised that he would have to treat the Imam carefully, thus he allowed him to teach whilst still in prison. Mansur finally decided to do away with the great Imam and had him poisoned. Abu Hanifah feeling the effects of the poison, bent down in prayer and died in the month on Rajab. News of the Imam’s death reached far and wide, and thousands gathered at the prison. The city Qadi washed his body, and kept repeating "by God you were the greatest faqih and the most pious man of our time....".

Imam Malik

Imam Malik was known for his integrity and peity. He always lived up to his convictions. Neither fear nor favour could ever deflect him from the right path. He was among the members of the glorious society of early Islam who could not be purchased and whose undaunted courage always proved as a guiding star for the freedom fighters.

When he was aged twenty-five, the Caliphate passed into the hands of the Abbasids caliph Mansur who was his colleague. Mansur highly respected him for his deep learning. The Imam however, favoured the Fatimid Nafs Zakriya for the exalted office of the Caliph. When he learned that the people had taken the oath of fealty of Mansur, he said that since Mansur had forced people to do so, the oath was not binding them. He quoted a Tradition of the Prophet (sws) to the effect that a divorce by force is not legal. When Jafar, a cousin of Mansur, was posted as Governor of Medina, he induced the inhabitants of the Holy city to renew their oath of allegiance to Mansur. The Governor forbade him not to publicise his Fatwa in respect of forced divorce. Highly principled and fearless as he was, the defied the Governor’s orders and courageously persisted in his course. This infuriated the Governor, who ordered that the Imam be awarded 70 stripes, as punishment. According, seventy stripes were inflicted on the naked back of the Imam which began to bleed. Mounted on a camel in his bloodstaind clothes, he was paraded through the streets of Medina. This brutality of the Governor failed to cow down or unnerve the noble Imam. Caliph Mansur, when apprised of he matter, punished the Governor and apologised to the Imam.

Imam Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi

At the time of Harun ar-Rashid, he had an appointment in Yemen, as a judge in Najran. Sunnis portray that his devotion to justice, even when it meant criticizing the governor, caused him some problems, and he was taken before the Caliph, falsely accused of aiding the Alawis in a revolt. At this time, al Shaybani was the chief justice, and his defense of ash-Shafi'i, coupled with ash-Shafi'i’s own eloquent defense, convinced Harun ar-Rashid to dismiss the charge, and to direct al Shaybani to take ash-Shafi'i to Baghdad. In Baghdad, he developed his first madhab, influnced by the teachings of both Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam Malik. Thus, his work there is known as “al Madhab al Qadim lil Imam as Shafi’i,” or the Old School of ash-Shafi'i.

Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal

The case of the persecution faced by Imam Ahmad is different from the previous cases for several reasons. Firstly (and this may just be a result of my own reading choices) but it seems that his suffering is more well-known than the above-mentioned cases. Secondly (and this might explain the first difference) Imam Ahmad's persecution is much more theological than political.

Under the reign of the Caliph at the time, Al-Ma'mun, a "heretical" Mu'tazilite theology become dominant and the religious authorities persecuted the orthodox scholars who disagreed including Imam Ahmad.

For refusing to follow the theology Al-Ma'mun tried to impose, Imam Ahmad was put in irons and was ordered to be delivered into the Caliph's presence. On the way, Imam Ahmad supplicated to Allah to prevent him from meeting Al-Ma’mun. His prayer was answered in the sudden death of al-Ma’mun. Unfortunately, the Inquisition continued into the reign of the next two caliphs and Imam Ahmad endured flogging, imprisonment and exile during this period. But with the death of the Caliph Al-Wathiq and the rise of the new Caliph Al-Mutawakkil, the persecution ended and Imam Ahmad regained some measure of freedom.

The Life of Imam Abu Hanifah by Maida Malik
Imam Malik by Kh. Jamil Ahmad
Wikipedia: Imam Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi`i
Wikipedia: Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal

islam and the passion (for social justice)

On YouTube I found an excerpt from a Coversation between Cornel West and Toni Morrisson which touched on the political implications of Mel Gibson's Passion (among other things). I was also able to find a fuller transcript of the conversation from The Nation's website under the title Blues, Love and Politics. The aspect which I found most intriguing is the distinction West makes between being a "Prophetic Christian" and a "Constantinian Christian" and it made me wonder about whether a similar distinction could be applied to Islam.

MORRISON: [reading] "I am curious about the language of religion, which has become more pronounced in this Administration. Can you comment on the manipulation of religious belief and language for violent ends?"

WEST: That's one of the most dangerous features of our moment, there's no doubt about that. We live in a society in which 96 percent of our fellow citizens believe in God, and 72 percent believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, 71 percent believe that the Book of Revelation has an empirically verifiable potential and 71 percent believe in angels. I don't put that down, I'm a Christian myself, but I'm a different kind of Christian than a lot of these Christians.

[...]

WEST: [...] the other side of this thing is that here we are, living in the biggest empire since the Roman Empire. Now the underside of the Roman Empire is the cross; that's why political prisoners were put to death, those who had the courage to act against the powers that be. We're the legatees of Constantinian Christianity, after Christianity was incorporated into the Roman Empire and was the official religion of the Roman Empire, which went on persecuting Jews and others.

Now, you see, I'm a prophetic Christian, I'm not a Constantinian Christian. That's very important. Because I want to raise the question, well, if you're going to talk about Jesus, did you really talk about the empire that put him to death and what the connection is between that empire and the empire that we're a part of now, and what Jesus demands of us in this empire given what he was willing to sacrifice in his own imperial moment? And I say now, Gibson, what have you got to say? But, he says, no, I'm going to give you sadomasochistic voyeurism.

So does this distinction play itself out in Islam? If so, how are the lines drawn?

Some might be tempted to say that the so-called Progressive Muslims are perhaps the analogue of West's "Prophetic Christian" but ironically, a number of those who use this label (like Irshad Manji for instance) are only liberal when it comes to religious issues but are neocons in terms of their politics. And conversely, in the egalitarian face of islamic orthodoxy we have already seen some indication of how orthodox Islam is actually rather progressive, at least in terms of the economic aspects of social justice.

Some might be tempted to say that Sunni Islam is the "Imperial" Islam while Shiism is more the Islam of the persecuted powerless minority. But that would be a little bit too simple.

For example, for a while now I've been meaning to elaborate on the fact that each of the four great imams who established the foundations for orthodox Sunni law had spent some time in prison or otherwise punished by for principled disobedience to the state of their day.

And conversely, within Shiism, Ali Shariati makes the distinction between Red Shi'ism (the religion of martyrdom) vs. Black Shi'ism (the religion of mourning) each with their own attitudes towards monarchy and clerical power. Some Shias focus on Imam Hussein's noble sacrifices in the interests of justice while others, in a Gibson-esque way, choose to emphasize the blood and gore.

I feel like something more detailed should be said, but I think I'll just end up repeating a point I already tried to make clear in ideology and temperament; namely that if some Muslims have a greater concern for social justice than others, they will not be identified merely by ideological labels ("progresive" , "orthodox", "shia" etc.) but on the existential decisions individuals make in their everyday lives.

Other Grenada:
islam needs radicals
sushi revisited: part one
ali shariati

tales of the out and gone

Amiri Baraka is definitely a figure I would like to "wrestle" with more on Planet Grenada. He has contributed much to the world of letters as a major member of the Black Arts Movement. And as an individual he has gone through an interesting series of personal transformations from changing his name, becoming a Black Muslim, a cultural nationalist, a "Third World" Marxist, etc.

NPR: Interview with Amiri Baraka on the occasion of his latest novel, 'Tales of the Out and Gone'.

Planet Grenada:
amiri baraka
kuumba

"with liberty, and justice..."

since when was blindness a good thing?

I know that justice and liberty are distinct, but the previous image of Bush as a vampire reminded me of the powerful Langston Hughes poem:

Justice

That Justice is a blind goddess
Is a thing to which we black are wise:
Her bandage hides two festering sores
That once perhaps were eyes.

Many summers ago I was sitting on the porch of the house I was living in at the time, having a conversation with some folks about religion. One of the people there was an African-American Bahai and somehow the conversation turned to the question of why Islam seemed appealing to so many Black Americans. His answer, especially coming from a Bahai, really surprised me. He basically said that a history of oppression gave Black people a unique capacity to recognize the truth when we see it. I would question the narrow racialism implied by both examples, but would still suggest that even if it doesn't provide one with special race-based wisdom or insight, a collective history of oppression will at the very least give a person a low tolerance for bs.