Shattering the Myth

Abstract

Shaffering the Myfh is a claim by Bruce B. Lawrence at severing the almostinextricable link, in western perceptions, between Islam and violence.Lawrence’s argument is simple and seemingly straightforward, although, as heprofesses, at odds with most popular and academic understandings of Islam.Comprehending Islam, as he puts it, requires a clear discernment of its integratedmetaphysical and circumstantial dimensions which over time has givenrise to distinct forms of Islamic sociopolitical manifestations. Changing globalconditions in the economic sphere have further propelled new forces andsociopolitical actors onto the public scene. Thus women may be expected toplay a different and more important role in Muslim civic space in the nearfuture. This changing role of women serves to offer hope, rather than despair,about the role of Islam in the 21st century (p. 3).Through a deconstructive process of reversal and re-inscription, Lawrenceattempts to expose the privileged violent/peaceful male/female violence hierarchythat supports and justifies such perceptions of Islam. To reverse the firsthierarchy and ‘disconnect’ Islam from violence (p. 9) he adopts a double stratagem,one definitional, the other discursive. In the former, Islam, as well asbeing a religion, is stressed as a modem day ideology subordinated to that ofnationalism-nationalism doing for the modem era what religion did or triedto do, in premodern times (p. 15). In the second strategy Lawrence discoursesthrough the violent colonial legacy perpetrated by the West and its brutalimpact on its victims (pp. 9-10).To reverse the second hierarchy, Lawrence, less candidly, stresses a feministperspective. Whereas the Muslim ‘enemy’ is invariably depicted in Westernstereotypes as a ‘male’ warrior from the past or a modem-day ‘male’ terrorist(p. 5), the feminist re-inscription depicts women as an “index of Muslim identity.”The purpose is to include a perspective on Muslim women that adds complexityto the typical rendition of Muslim norms and values (p. 6). Lawrenceseeks to reconstruct the ‘determinist’ interpretations of Islam, pertaining to violenceand the subjugation of women, and to link it to the Western colonial era.The logic is that by reversing and reconstructing certain violent hierarchicalcategorizations so as to transform particular Western understandings and perceptionsand hence attitudes toward Muslims, the latter may become lessinclined to react defensively or violently. This would allow for a broader morepeaceful exploratory interdisciplinary, international, cross-cultural approach(p. 12). In this sense and throughout his work, Lawrence subordinates andmarginalizes Islam in favor of three determining, competing, and challenging ...