Home  Essays Omid Safi's "Challenges"
|
|
Written by Omid Safi
|
|
Tuesday, 15 November 2005 |
|
Challenges and Opportunities for
the Progressive Muslim in North America
By Omid Safi
Bism Allah al-Rahman al-Rahim
In today’s political climate, it is a cliché to begin a discourse on
Islam and Muslims with the talk of “crisis.” It is not my intention
here to add to that unrelenting assault on Muslims. Instead, I
intend to explore the profound challenges and precious opportunity
confronting Muslims who self-identify as progressive.
Who are progressive Muslims?
Progressive Islam both continues and radically departs from the
150-year-old tradition of liberal Islam, that of figures like Abduh,
Afghani, Rida, Shari’ati, and others. Unlike some earlier modernists,
progressive Muslims are almost uniformly critical of colonialism, both
in its nineteenth-century manifestation and in its current variety.
Progressive Muslims develop a critical and nonapologetic “multiple
critique” with respect to both Islam and modernity.
Also unlike their liberal Muslim forefathers, progressive Muslims
represent a broad coalition of female and male Muslim activists and
intellectuals. One of the distinguishing features of the progressive
Muslim movement as the vanguard of Islamic (post)modernism has been the
high level of female participation as well as the move to highlight
women’s rights as part of a broader engagement with human rights.
Progressives measure their success not in developing new and
beatific theologies but rather by the amount of change for good on the
ground level that they can produce in Muslim and non-Muslim societies.
This movement is noted by a number of themes: striving to realize a
just and pluralistic society through critically engaging Islam, a
relentless pursuit of social justice, an emphasis on gender equality as
a foundation of human rights, a vision of religious and ethnic
pluralism, and a methodology of nonviolent resistance.
The Progressive Movement in North America and Beyond
It is vital for us in the North American scene to realize that the
majority of those who have engaged in the most meaningful Muslim
struggles on behalf of social justice, liberation and gender equality
have hitherto lived outside the boundaries of North America, and have
in many cases never heard of the (English!) terms “Progressive Muslim,”
“progressive Islam,” or the Progressive Muslim Union.
There are many important movements in areas of in places like South
Africa, Iran, Malaysia, Turkey, Egypt, and elsewhere.
So I hope that we in the North American scene don’t suffer from our
usual myopia of thinking that we stand at the center of the cosmos.
Having said that, I continue to believe that the Muslims in North
America have a historic role to play in the articulation of Islam, and
that ironically the very excesses of the American Empire and the public
withdrawal of many Wahhabis form the public domain post-9/11 have
created a fruitful space for progressive Muslims from a host of
backgrounds to get together and debate ideas here.
There have already been some important victories, and one should not
lose sight of them. One of them is in the area of gender
justice. Making misogynist and patriarchal comments in
public has become as much of an anathema for Muslims as making
illdefined calls for jihad without specifying the methods whereby it is
to be undertaken (or not), or against whom. Even in those cases
where the mainstream Muslim organizations’ response to issues of gender
equality has been insufficiently vague (such as the “Woman Friendly
Mosque” guide ), it too is a sign of a move in the right
direction. I think it is important to mark these victories, as
indeed they benefit all Muslims in our community, regardless of how
they self-identify.
And yet I will not be focusing on the successes of the progressive
Muslim movement, but on what I feel are the very serious challenges
facing us. I write here both as a supporter and a
self-critic of this movement, adopting the Qur’anic mandate to stand up
for justice in the sight of God first of all against one’s own self and
one’s own community. It is some of these same shortcomings
that led me to resign from my position as the chair and a co-founder of
one such organization, but I remain optimistic that if these challenges
are confronted with an open heart, inquiring intellect, and
self-critical sincerity, that insha’Allah more good can be done to
bring out the socially just and compassionate teachings that do come
from the very heart of the Islamic tradition. But deal with
the challenges we must.
Confronting the Challenges Facing the Progressive Movement in North America:
1) Transcending antagonistic attitudes towards mainstream Muslim communities
There is a substantial difference between being an alternative to the
mainstream Muslim community (something I wholeheartedly support) and
being consistently antagonistic to the mainstream Muslim community
(which I do not).
I am very concerned about some of the statements from some of
progressive Muslims that repeatedly characterize the mainstream
community as Islamist, Salafi, or Wahhabi, etc. In today’s
political climate, doing so is putting peoples’ lives, family,
property, freedom, and reputation in grave danger. All too
often those of us in the progressive community have felt that we must
be unrelenting in our critique in order to be effective. Surely
one can be capable of nuance without surrendering the mandate of being
radical in the cause of justice and truth.
My own hope is that we in the progressive movement can be a light to
the community, a voice of conscience, a mandate of justice, an example
of compassion….some force that through the power of its moral calling
will persuade many in our community to do that which is most just, most
beautiful, and most compassionate.
2) Struggling against secular tendencies in the progressive movement
One of my ambitious hopes for the progressive movement in North America
had been that it would mark a “big tent” space in which Muslims of
various persuasions could gather to strive for common projects, some
focusing on the interpretations of Islam in the modern world and others
working on concrete and grounded social projects.
While the openness of that proposal still appeals to me, I have also
come to see that in practice it is awfully challenging to pull off this
“big tent.” In particular, one is reminded here that just
as there are shades and gradations of conservative Muslims, not all
Muslims who self-identify as secular are the same. The secular
criticism of Edward Said is not the same as the secularism of Marx, or
that of modern Europe. For Said, part of this process of
“secular criticism” was characterized as follows: “In its suspicion of
totalizing concepts, in its discontent with reified objects, in its
impatience with guilds, special interests, imperialized fiefdoms, and
orthodox habits of mind, criticism is most itself, and if the paradox
can be tolerated, most unlike itself at the moment it starts turning
into organized dogma.” It is worth exploring whether the term
progressive Islam can and has become a dogma in and by itself, and thus
ironically unlike itself—as Said suggests. As a loving
self-critique, I would suggest that many progressives have become every
bit as rigid, authoritarian, and yes, dogmatic as the conservative
movements they/we so readily criticize. This represents a moral
and philosophical failure of the highest magnitude.
Among Muslims today, one also finds a variety of secular
tendencies. Some come from a Muslim heritage but who are
essentially agnostic in their outlook (often combined with the most
anti-religious interpretations of Marxism), whereas others interpret
secularism a call to keep the state powers out of the religious
game. I have come to realize that in our desire to
establish the widest possible ground for the “big tent” in some
progressive Muslim organizations, we have left ourselves open to the
problem of not having enough of a common ground. At the risk of
overstating the obvious, a progressive Muslim movement has to start
with at least a minimum commitment of commitment to a tawhidic
perspective, the guidance of the Qur’an, and the earnest desire to
emulate the Prophetic Sunna. While I will always support
those who seek the check the state (whether the US, Israel, Iran,
India, etc.) against favoring one religious community over others, I
have come to realize that a Marxist interpretation of secularism with
its hostility towards Islam as a source of inspiration presents one of
the greatest sources of damage to the progressive Muslim
movement. This damage is all the more pernicious as so many
progressives readily identify with the Marxists’ devastating critique
of socioeconomic class issues, colonialism, etc. Yet this
potential ally is suffocating the spirit of progressive Islam.
3) Engagement with the multiple intellectual and spiritual traditions of Islam
It is not only to outside critics that progressives have too often
seemed “insufficiently Muslim.” I think there has been an
unfortunate and unnecessary hostility among some of us to take
seriously the spiritual and intellectual heritage of Islam, and draw on
the vast resources it offers us for living as meaningful deputies
(khalifas, as in Qur’an 2:30) of God in the world
today. In the Progressive Muslims volume, I had
stated:
Progressive Muslims insist on a serious engagement with the full
spectrum of Islamic thought and practices. There can be no progressive
Muslim movement that does not engage the very “stuff” (textual and
material sources) of the Islamic tradition, even if some of us would
wish to debate what “stuff” that should be and how it ought to be
interpreted. …
To state the obvious, a progressive Muslim agenda has to be both
progressive and Islamic, in the sense of deriving its inspiration from
the heart of the Islamic tradition. It cannot survive as a graft of
Secular Humanism onto the tree of Islam, but must emerge from within
that very entity. It can receive and surely has received inspiration
from other spiritual and political movements, but it must ultimately
grow in the soil of Islam.
My serious concern at this point is that some of the organizations that
have adopted the name “progressive Muslims” today are dangerously close
(if not already there) of falling into the trap of providing the
“Islamic veneer” for many positions without seriously taking the
challenge of engaging the traditions of Islam.
4) Reviving the spiritual core of a reform movement:
One of my great hopes had been that this reform movement would be
marked by a genuine spiritual core, something that would combine and
yet go beyond the earlier rationalistic 20th century movements with
Sufi etiquette and postmodern, post-colonial liberation
stances. Yet for me the spiritual core has always
been and remains at the center. As I see it, there is no
way of transforming society without simultaneously transforming the
hearts of human beings.
5) Recovering courtesy and spiritual manners
It is imperative for the lofty social ideals of progressive Muslims to
be reflected in the adab and akhlaq of our interpersonal
relations. I continue to hope that some of the Sufi ethics
of dealing with fellow human beings would characterize our dealings
with one another, to always recall and remember the reflection of
Divine Presence and qualities in one another.
Some would call that romantic or idealistic. Maybe
so. I for one continue to hold on firmly to the
notion that without romance and idealism we have no hope of being and
becoming fully human. Here, as in so many places, Gandhi had a
keen observation: “As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be
religious. There is no such thing as religion overriding morality.”
On far too many occasions, many of us progressives have lost the moral
basis of interpersonal relations. What is particularly
disappointing to me is that we have time and again risen to defend
those whose points of view and practice have been hard to justify under
any existing interpretation of Islam, but have been quick to demonize
many who have done no more than simply present what has up until now
been traditional and common Muslim attitudes towards issues that are
now part of the culture wars (homosexuality, interpretations of
scripture, etc.).
My hope is still that a smaller community marked by true love and
devotion for one another would be capable of incredible
transformations. That after all is Islam’s own legacy starting
from the time of the each of the prophets, including our own beloved
Messenger of God (S). What a beautiful example for each of
us to emulate, as we all seek to establish small, humane communities
around us. Large numbers of people who are being rude and
uncivil to one another have no hope of transforming the world, much
less themselves.
Love heals. Love transforms. That is why I have felt so
strongly that progressive communities, indeed all human communities,
should be permeated by that type of loving person-to-person
relationships.
Conclusion:
I pray that the above comments, as hard as they have been perhaps to
read, will inspire some to address some of the present shortcomings of
progressive movement. Sadly, I am certain that some
Muslim-haters such as Daniel Pipes and Robert Spencer will interpret
this as the imploding of the progressive movement. There
have been some vicious attacks against many of us from sites on both
the far right and the far left of the Muslim community, and I can
anticipate their criticisms/rejoicing as well. So why
bother? Simply because I believe that the ability of
Muslims in America to contribute to the grand project of Islamic reform
(or whatever one wishes to call it) is at stake.
I recently had a chance to spend a long day in conversation with some
Christian activists who had worked with Martin Luther King,
Jr. One of their insightful comments has stayed with
me: What Martin said was the same as what Christian
preachers had been saying for about one hundred years. What was
new is that people had heard that message so many times that when the
charismatic teacher came along, what he said simply resonated with that
which had known to be true in the innermost chamber of their
heart. Our task today is not to simply parody Martin,
as much as some of us may idealize him. I believe that the best
we can do at this moment in history is to work on projects on scales
large and small to establish righteous communities and
just/compassionate interpretations of Islam. When the time for
the movement to emerge triumphantly will come, our struggle—indeed
jihad—will have the benefit of letting the truths be self-evident to
the innermost chamber of Muslim hearts.
Our struggle is both for ourselves and for our children. We have
to be willing to live with the realization that none of us will get to
live long enough to actually see the realization of a just
world. But in the endeavor to bring that world around, our
own lives will have achieved the dignity and meaning to which we are
entitled. And we pray that our children may come to
live in a world in which their dignity as Muslims, as citizens of this
planet, and as human beings is engaged and acknowledged. Towards
that day, starting today, we rise….
Amin….
Omid Safi
************************************
Omid Safi is an associate professor of Islamic Studies at Colgate
University, in Hamilton, NY. He specializes on Islamic
mysticism, contemporary Islamic thought, and medieval Islamic
history. He is the Chair for the Study of Islam at
the American Academy of Religion, the largest international
organization devoted to the academic study of religion. He was
until recently a founder and the co-chair for the Progressive Muslim
Union of North America (PMUNA). Omid, along with the most of the
Board of Directors, resigned from PMUNA in Summer 2005.
He is the editor of the volume Progressive Muslims: On Justice,
Gender, and Pluralism (Oxford: Oneworld Publications,
2003). His work The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam is
forthcoming from UNC Press in early 2006. He has written
over 30 articles and some 75 encyclopedia entries and book
reviews. He has been featured a number of times on NPR,
Associated Press, and other national and international media.
The artwork is: "Moving Towards the Light 4" Artist Unknown
Powered by AkoComment 2.0! and SecurityImage 3.0.2 |
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, 17 November 2005 )
|
|
|
Food Bank
ProgressiveIslam.Org
would like to suggest that you
consider giving Ramadan charity to Second Harvest, the national
food-bank for the poor, or to your local food-bank.
Second
Harvest has a local food bank finder on their front page if you need help or want to contribute locally.
We are building a Community Portal
Resource Page in the Women's Health Project. Please tell us about services in your community.
|
