Muslim Voices Research Articles

Living out Islam: voices of gay, lesbian, and transgender Muslims

Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Engaging Religious Tradition 2. Challenging Family and Community 3. Adapting Religious Politics 4. Adjusting Secular Politics 5. Forging Minority Alliances 6. Journeying toward Individual Identity ConclusionAppendix Glossary of Terms Notes Bibliography Index About the Author

Young British Muslims

Most popular and academic interest in the subject of British Muslim communities
 in recent years can be located within the context public debates around
 the visible presence of western Muslims and fears of radicalization and religious
 extremism. The 7/7 London bombings of 2005, which increased the attention
 of journalists, researchers, and government policymakers on Muslim
 young people, has resulted in numerous books, reports, and journal articles
 purporting to explain why some young British Muslims seem attracted to terrorism.
 The title under review joins a handful of similar publications that provide
 more nunanced observations in this field, notably, Philip Lewis’ Young,
 British, and Muslim(2007), Anshuman Mondal’s Young British Muslim Voices
 (2008), and Sughra Ahmed’s Seen and Not Heard: Voices of Young British
 Muslims (2009), all of which explore the lives, experiences, and views of
 young Muslims in Britain.
 This important subject area warrants deep research and rigorous analysis.
 Nahid Afrose Kabir’s extensive ethnographic fieldwork draws upon 216 interviews
 with young people aged between fifteen and thirty from five of
 Britain’s main cities with substantial Muslim communities. Structured around
 the themes of identity, religion, and culture, it also includes responses to questions
 of citizenship and loyalty, media bias, recent controversies around the
 niqab (face veil), and reactions to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s comments
 on implementing aspects of the Shari‘ah in the country. Overall, it makes a
 contribution to the nascent field of Muslim youth studies by offering windows
 into the hopes and aspirations of young British Muslims as well as presenting ...

Representative claims and beyond: a study of Muslim women's inclusion in the Flemish headscarf debate

In this article, we take a stand against the relativism of contemporary “claim-based” approaches to the study of the substantive representation of women (SRW), and argue for on-going evaluation of the responsiveness of actors’ claims to speak for women. We advance the concept of responsiveness as a criterion for evaluating the quality of SRW. We define such quality in a relational manner; implying the inclusion of women's judgment in the representation process. We demonstrate the relevance of the concept of responsiveness by a study of Muslim women's substantive representation in the Flemish headscarf debate. Based upon Severs' [2010. “Representation as Claims-Making: Quid Responsiveness?” Representation 46 (4): 411–423] work, we examine the congruence between the claims to speak for Muslim women formulated by, on the one hand, political parties and, on the other, Muslim women. The important incongruence found between the claims formulated by right-wing and liberal parties and those of Muslim women showcases that representative claims do not unequivocally serve to include Muslim women's voices in the representation process. Right-wing and liberal parties' claims served to exclude, delegitimize, and otherwise marginalize Muslim women's voices; evoking concerns for the gendered and racial inequalities in representative systems and Muslim women's capacity for democratic inclusion within them.

Book Notes

Book Notes Mohammad M. Baghi, Amina Inloes, Omar Ali Grant, and Hamid Tehrani [Errata] Between Reason and Revelation: Twin Wisdoms Reconciled: An Annotated English translation of Nasir-i Khusraw’s Kitāb-i Jāmi‘ al-ḥikmatayn trans. Eric Ormsby, 2012. London: I. B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, x + 292 pp., £29.50. isbn: 978-1-780-76132-9. Jami‘ al-Hikmatayn (lit. Reconciliation of Two Wisdoms) was written by Nasir-i Khusraw Qubadiyani (394–481/1003–1088), the Isma‘ili poet, philosopher, and author. It aims at “finding solutions to religious issues and philosophical doctrines”. Nasir-i Khusraw states that in 462/1069, on his way from Egypt to Persia, ‘Ayn al-Dawlah Abu al-Ma‘ali ‘Ali ibn Asad, the ruler of Badakhshan, sent him a qasidah by Khwaja Abu al-Haytham Ahmad ibn Jurjani (fl. late tenth to early eleventh centuries) containing 91 questions on philosophy, logic, physics, syntax, and the religious sciences, and requested that he provide him with answers. And so, in his safe haven of Yumgan (in Badakhshan, present-day Afghanistan), Nasir wrote Jami‘ al-Hikmatayn, his last work, wherein he discussed with more precision and a simpler diction almost all the questions treated in his earlier work, Zad al-Musafirin. The book takes the form of a discussion between a philosopher and an Isma‘ili on a wide array of subjects, and each discussion ends with a reconciliation of the twain views. Eric Ormsby’s translation includes an introduction with a brief biographical account of Nasir-i Khusraw and a description of Jami‘ al-Hikmatayn as well as useful bibliography. The translation is beautifully worded but tends towards the literal, with frequent transliterations, and appears to rely on the 1953 French translation by Muhammad Mu‘in and Henri Corbin, which has also been criticised in some Persian works. In that regard, some of these explaining Jami‘ al-Hikmatayn or offering insight into the translation by Mu‘in and Corbin could be consulted if preparations are made for a second edition.1 [End Page 249] Mohammad M. Baghi The Islamic College, London, UK Unburied Memories: The Politics of Bodies of Sacred Defense Martyrs in Iran, ed. Pedram Khosronejad, 2013. Abingdon, Canada & New York: Routledge, ix + 172 pp, £80.00. isbn: 978-0-415-52398-1. Unburied Memories is a collection of previously published articles on how Iranians, both rural and urban, have chosen to remember the trauma of the Iran-Iraq war. The question is raised as to whether Iranians continue to perceive the war as something of contemporary relevance, or whether – perhaps as a survival mechanism to keep up hope – they instead have chosen to portray it as a significant but historically distant event, despite visible reminders of the conflict. The articles explore the way the war is perceived by the collective Iranian psyche by delving into the cultural and socio-political symbolism of visible war memorials. The memorials discussed range from cemeteries to museums to paintings and photographs, and occupy both public and private space – the latter including memorials to fallen loved ones in people’s homes. Frequent black-and-white photographs of war memorials and depictions of martyrs (both historical and contemporary) aid in communicating the symbolism being discussed. The use of the Shi‘a symbolism of martyrdom in the memorials is a common theme, as is the adoption of the ideology of martyrdom in post-Revolutionary politics, and how different people respond to the politicization of personal loss. Some articles also explore how war memorials have evolved to reflect current social concerns in the Islamic Republic; for instance, a museum wing commemorating female martyrs is seen not only as a memorial to the deceased but as a reflection of contemporary debates on the ideology of gender in Iran. As would be expected, the tone of the book is sombre, and the immediacy of the prose suggests that at least some of the authors have a deep personal connection to the tragic events of the war. Amina Inloes The Islamic College, London, UK [End Page 250] Muslim Voices and Lives in the Contemporary World ed. Frances Trix, John Walbridge, and Linda...

LOOKING FOR HOME IN THE ISLAMIC DIASPORA OF AYAAN HIRSI ALI, AZAR NAFISI, AND KHALED HOSSEINI

On November 8, 2007, Anglo-Dutch writer Ian Buruma delivered a lecture titled Radicalism in Europe.1 His claim: Muslim thinkers are the key to diffusing a potentially explosive politics of radical religious separatism in Europe. A small but powerful minority of Islamic radicals resides in Europe, according to Buruma, and they remain an unassimilated and thus, dangerous force to be reckoned with. He cites the 2004 slaying of Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, as evidence of this Islamist radicalism. Van Gogh's 2004 film Submission exposed the psychological and physical violence levied against women in Islamic societies, and it was in response to this production that Islamic-Dutch citizen, Mohammed Bouyeri murdered Van Gogh as retribution for his critique of Islam.2Buruma suggests two paths for suturing what he reads as an ever-growing divide between mainstream Europe (and the Western world at large) and its radical Islamic minority. The one lies with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (script-writer for Van Gogh's Submission). A self-proclaimed ex-Muslim, Ali represents for Buruma the radical alternative to radical Islam - renunciation. She is, thus, not the icon he would select for keeping what he calls non- violent Muslim minorities in favor of Western secular democracy3 Rather, he posits so-called thinker Tariq Ramadan as the optimal symbol of Islamic, pro- Western thought. Buruma argues that it is precisely Ramadan's embodiment of moderate Islam that makes him a sound solution to the increasingly dangerous divide between mainstream Europe and its radical Islamic minority. Where Hirsi Ali is, for Buruma, a risky figure because she renounced Islam, Ramadan represents a middle road, a pragmatic alternative that encompasses both Orthodox Islam and a pro- Western politics. Buruma champions him as the salve for an ailing political/religious situation in Europe.Just one month later, on December 7, 2007, Ayaan Hirsi Ali published an editorial in the New York Times under the title, Silent Moderates.4 She defines Islam's Moderates by invoking their opposite, the Radicals. According to Ali, the Radicals constitute proponents of Islamic justice. She cites the case of a twenty-year-old Saudi Arabian woman who was abducted and raped by several men, only to be sentenced to six months in prison and 200 lashes by bamboo cane. The rape-victim's crime? Mingling, or the association with a male unrelated by blood or marriage.5 Saudi Arabia's enforcement of sharia (Islamic law) marks it, in Hirsi Ali's eyes, a radical Islamist state against which moderate Islamic thinkers should rally. But where are the moderates? asks Ali:Where are the Muslim voices raised over the temble injustice of incidents like these? How many Muslims are willing to stand up and say... that this manner of justice is appalling, brutal, and bigoted- and that no matter who said it was the right thing to do, and how long ago it was said, this should no longer be done?6Hirsi Ali is no Boazian or Herskovitzian relativist. She writes, We in the would be wrong. . .to elevate cultures full of bigotry and hatred toward women to the stature of respectable alternative ways of life.7 According to her, then, the job of a moderate Islamic thinker is to resist the temptation of cultural relativism, to dare to declare Western democratic law morally superior to Saudi Arabian sharia} Ali closes her opinion piece with an invocation of Tariq Ramadan: I would welcome some guidance from that famous Muslim theologian of moderation, Tariq Ramadan.9 Ironically, both Buruma (who writes Ali off as an extremist because she renounced Islam) and Ali invoke the moderation of Ramadan in the name of bridging the non-violent/radical, Western/non- Western Islamic divide. There is, then, on the part of both Buruma and Ali, an attempt to negotiate diasporic Islam's relationship to the West as both a geographical region and an ideological influence. …

Global Muslim Voices on Islam – Democracy Compatibility and Co-existence: A Study of the Views of Sadek Sulaiman, Louay Safi, Radwan Masmoudi, and Muqtedar Khan

Islam-democracy compatibility or Islamic democratic discourse – the relation between Islamic socio-political concepts and institutions and positive features and notions of modern democracy – has ga...

In Search of Development: Muslims and Electoral Politics in an Indian State

West Bengal's Muslim minority are in many respects excluded from both the developmental and political processes in the state. Muslims score significantly lower on a range of socio-economic indicators compared to other sections of the population, and their representation in the political sphere is poor. However, recent years have witnessed an increasing mobilisation of Muslim organisations seeking to address and overcome this ‘development deficit’. As part of this mobilisation in search of development, these organisations have used the Muslim electorate's strength of numbers to promote issues of concern to Muslim voters. In doing so they have succeeded in putting significant pressure on all political parties in the state, who for much of 2010 and 2011 were engaged in an intense political competition that culminated with the ouster of the incumbent state government at the 2011 assembly elections. In this paper I analyse the background for this recent emergence of a distinct Muslim voice in the debates over the state's development trajectory. I examine how some Muslim organisations have bargained for inclusion in West Bengal's development agenda by demanding that special quotas for Muslims be introduced in, e.g., education and government employment. Tellingly, this demand spawned prompt and positive responses from political parties in the state, who have gone to great lengths to accommodate Muslim demands for development. I argue that this overwhelmingly positive response is the result of successful and strategic operations in what Partha Chatterjee calls ‘political society’ by a marginalised Muslim electorate in search of development.

Islamic Militancy and Resentment against Hadhramis in Post-Suharto Indonesia: A Case Study of Habib Rizieq Syihab and His Islamic Defenders Front

The article discusses a particular Islamist militant movement in Indonesia, the Islamic Defenders Front (Front Pembela Islam, or FPI). Gaining considerable following and influence in post-Suharto Indonesia, the FPI called for the implementation of Sharia law addressing the existential worries and moral concerns of lower-class Muslims. Under the leadership of Habib Rizieq Syihab, an Indonesian of Hadhrami descent, the FPI attracted particular attention because of its use of violence against minority groups and so-called immoral businesses, such as cafés, bars, and nightclubs. However, as this article shows, their violent acts have sparked considerable controversy in Indonesia, as many Indonesians began to question the role of Rizieq in particular in the violence and of Arab Indonesians in general. Examining the growth of the organization and Rizieq’s rise to leadership, the article thereafter analyzes the various responses both by indigenous Indonesian Muslims and by Indonesian Hadhramis to the FPI’s violent activities. By paying specific attention to the voices of indigenous non-Arab Muslims, this article portrays Muslim resentment toward Rizieq not only in terms of his persistent use of violence but also with regard to his background as a Hadhrami Arab. This analysis brings to light prejudices and stereotypes that are directed against Arabs and that have their roots in the colonial period but are nevertheless present in today’s Indonesia. Furthermore, by focusing on critical Hadhrami voices, the article points to new divisions inside Indonesia’s Hadhrami community, particularly among the Ba’alawi or sada, that is, those Hadhramis who—like Rizieq—claim descent from the prophet Muhammad.

Beyond “Angry Muslims”? Reporting Muslim Voices in the British Press

In this article we discuss the significance of how a variety of self-consciously Muslim actors have become increasingly discernable in public and media discourses in Britain. We show how within news reporting itself there is an observable variety of Muslim perspectives and that this marks a positive contrast with the more limited range of argumentation (publicly reported at least) at an earlier period in the emergence of British Muslim identities in the late 1980s at the time of the Rushdie affair. We maintain that a discussion of these developments would benefit from a vocabulary that can analytically describe the boundaries between, and content within, a variety of Muslim voices, as well as evaluate what their inclusion in mainstream public discourses implies for an understanding of more macro concerns around citizenship and nationhood. This article makes a tentative contribution to this goal by critically evaluating the inclusion and representation in the national press of British Muslim voices. We wish to draw attention to the ways in which the British case illustrates how relational notions of Muslim “fundamentalism” and “moderation” are present within the inclusion and representation of Muslim voices within news reporting. This can be illustrated by how Muslim actors are characterized as angry, ambiguous, and approving. What is crucial to note is that this amounts to more than simply including Muslim voices of fundamentalist anger.

Sufi politics in Britain: the Sufi Muslim Council and the ‘silent majority’ of Muslims

This article presents and analyses a new public Muslim voice that emerged in the political aftermath of the terrorist attacks in London in July 2005, in which the government reviewed its relations with Muslim communities. The Sufi Muslim Council (SMC) immediately attracted attention and criticism when it was launched in 2006, but it has not been studied in detail before. This article addresses the SMC's publicized self-presentation at the time of the launch, which contentiously identified itself against a broad definition of ‘extremists’ and adopted the language of the government. An interview with the SMC spokesperson and attendance at several public events arranged by the SMC from 2006 to 2009 are the basis of further analysis. The SMC's effort to establish a coalition of Sufi communities, previously lacking in Britain, is discussed. It is concluded that a combination of the circumstances at hand and the framing of the SMC's project, including the focus put on what the various communities shared, made this effort at least temporarily successful. An important feature in this framing was focus on the common Sufi practice of venerating the prophet Muhammad.

British Muslim experiences in English first-class cricket

British Muslims (the majority of whom are of South Asian background) remain largely excluded from professional sport in the UK. A notable exception is cricket, where significant representation has been achieved in a playing capacity. Based on in-depth interviews, this article examines the experiences of British Muslim players in the contemporary English first-class game. In particular, it addresses the role and significance of Islam in their sporting lives; the extent to which their experiences as Muslims and their subsequent public articulations of Muslimness in the sporting environment are affected by the wider socio-political climate that has developed since the 7/7 London transport bombings; and the degree to which dominant subcultural and off-field aspects of professional cricket are perceived to be conducive to observing the obligations of Islam. Following academic work that has detailed the complexities, nuances and multiple constructions of young Muslim lives and identities in other areas of British society, this article extends these analyses by examining the currently under-researched area of professional sport, thereby shedding light on an arena in which British Muslim voices have previously been ignored or marginalized. The article also discusses methodological issues related to a non-Muslim undertaking research in/with Muslim communities.

Casting a “Sideways Glance” at the Crusades: The Voice of the Other in Joinville's Vie de Saint Louis

This article finds in Joinville's late crusading narrative, the Vie de Saint Louis, evidence of past and continuing dialogues and a community of understanding between putative enemies in a theater of war. I argue that the text's mutually derived, Franco-Islamic references and syncretic customs attest to the everyday cross-fertilization and dialogue that took place in the medieval contact zone of Outre-mer irrespective of official crusading ideology emerging from Europe. I then turn to examining closely some of the Vie's many inter-confessional dialogues, showing how the cited Muslim voices of these dialogues reorient meaning within their linguistic environment, casting what Bakhtin called an unofficial “sideways glance” upon what would otherwise be monologic, Latin-Christian discourse. These unofficial, textual sideways glances both open up alternative perspectives within the Vie, and effectively cast an alternative image of the crusading endeavor itself, one in which Muslim and Christian values are mirrored in each other.

Europe 3.0—Bring Turkey In

To the shock of the world, the mild‐mannered Swiss have acted the most radically of any European country out of fear of Muslim immigrants by banning minarets. Was this a blow against tolerance, or for it? Is Islam a European religion, or is Europe a Christian club? Meanwhile, as Turkey becomes more confident in its regional power and Muslim identity it is shaking up some old friends.In this section, two of Europe's most prominent Muslim voices, the foreign minister of Sweden and a top Turkish official try to sort it out.

Islam Is a European Religion

To the shock of the world, the mild‐mannered Swiss have acted the most radically of any European country out of fear of Muslim immigrants by banning minarets. Was this a blow against tolerance, or for it? Is Islam a European religion, or is Europe a Christian club? Meanwhile, as Turkey becomes more confident in its regional power and Muslim identity it is shaking up some old friends.In this section, two of Europe's most prominent Muslim voices, the foreign minister of Sweden and a top Turkish official try to sort it out.

Israel Should Get Used to the New Turkey

To the shock of the world, the mild‐mannered Swiss have acted the most radically of any European country out of fear of Muslim immigrants by banning minarets. Was this a blow against tolerance, or for it? Is Islam a European religion, or is Europe a Christian club? Meanwhile, as Turkey becomes more confident in its regional power and Muslim identity it is shaking up some old friends.In this section, two of Europe's most prominent Muslim voices, the foreign minister of Sweden and a top Turkish official try to sort it out.

Minaret Ban Is a Blow for Tolerance

To the shock of the world, the mild‐mannered Swiss have acted the most radically of any European country out of fear of Muslim immigrants by banning minarets. Was this a blow against tolerance, or for it? Is Islam a European religion, or is Europe a Christian club? Meanwhile, as Turkey becomes more confident in its regional power and Muslim identity it is shaking up some old friends.In this section, two of Europe's most prominent Muslim voices, the foreign minister of Sweden and a top Turkish official try to sort it out.

Unveiling Muslim Voices

Unveiling Muslim Voices

IMuslims

In his new book iMuslims: Rewiring the House of Islam, Gary Bunt buildsupon the research represented in his two previous books: Virtually Islamic(Oxford University Press: 2000) and Islam in the Digital Age (Pluto Press:2003). Bunt’s latest book, however, provides a more comprehensive, elaborate, and up-to-date analysis of the nature and various approaches of thediverse Muslim voices that are projected online and included in what hedescribed in previous work as a “cyber-Islamic environment.” ...

Al-Qalam: An Alternative Muslim Voice in the South African Press1

ABSTRACT This article studies and explains why and how Al-Qalam was transformed, and by implication, how and why it became one of South Africa's ‘alternative press’ in the 1980s. Whilst these aspects form the bulk of this essay, it also takes into account the role Al-Qalam has continued to play in the post-apartheid era; in addition, it shows how it embraced new projects that make up an important part of the current socio-political landscape in South Africa and to what extent Al-Qalam responds to issues within a pervading neo-liberal context.

Islam in the Age of Globalization

AbstractIf modernity is ambiguous, the relationship of Islam to modernity is still more ambiguous. This essay reviews the scope of change that has occurred in the Muslim world since the onset of the Age of Globalization. Marshall Hodgson coined the phrase ‘the Great Western Transmutation’, decentering the West and accenting the cluster of traits that make moderns modern wherever they are. Hodgson's analysis is amplified by current Muslim voices, such as Ziauddin Sardar, Chandra Muzaffar, Omid Safi, and Ebrahim Moosa. The premise, as also the outcome, of this essay is to project modern day Muslims as global citizens who can, and do, promote innovation, openness and pluralism as legitimate, natural dimensions of Islamic loyalty. Globalization, like modernity, becomes not the enemy of Islam but its ally.