A View from Germany on the War in Afghanistan

It is important for us to keep ourselves aware of what others in the world think about our nation’s policies, in general as well as in relation to Islam. For this reason I often turn to Spiegel Online International, the English-language online version of the German newspaper Der Spiegel.

Yesterday Spiegel Online International published a commentary by Jürgen Todenhöfer, who, we are told, “served … in the Bundestag, Germany’s federal parliament as a member of the center-right Christian Democratic Union from 1972 to 1990” and who, it would seem, carries at least a modicum of authority on Afghanistan, having, we are also told, “made regular visits to Afghanistan since 1980 and [written] about them in his 2010 book ‘Teile Dein Glück’ (‘Share Your Good Fortune’).”

Well worth the reading and bearing the title, “A War Built on Four Lies: Why Germany Must End its Deployment in Afghanistan,” the commentary can be found at:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,744866,00.html#ref=nlint

The commentary spells out the four “lies” (I’d be more comfortable with the use of “assertions” rather than “lies.”) referenced in it title, that:

1. “we’re there to fight international terrorism.”

2. “we’re there to defend our civilization’s values.”

3. “we prioritize civilian reconstruction over military activities.”

4. “we’re in the Hindu Kush to prevent the return of the Taliban for good.”

I was particularly struck by Todenhöfer’s assertion, in relation to the first “lie,” that:

In Afghanistan, what we’re really fighting is not international terrorists, but a national resistance movement — and, in doing so, we’re creating exactly the thing we claim to be combating.

I was also struck by two things which Todenhöfer said in relation to the second “lie.” First:

By night, nameless American death squads move in to liquidate resistance leaders — and often civilians as well — violating the most basic rules of international law. Young Afghans have sat in the Bagram torture prison for years with no hope of being granted a trial and in conditions worse than at Guantanamo.

Second:

Our “defenders of civilization” never considered this worthy of a parliamentary debate. Indeed, since the dawn of colonialism, our involvement in the Muslim world has never been about defending our civilization’s values; it’s about defending our interests — and Iraq and Afghanistan are merely the latest episodes in a long history.

I invite readers to offer their observations, comments, and questions on these and any other related points.

A Resource for Understanding, Now, Yemen

After Tunisia and Egypt and along with Jordan and Syria, we find ourselves reading and hearing about civil unrest in Yemen, a country we have also relatively recently been reading and hearing about in connection with Al-Quaeda terrorism. 

The online English edition of the German Newspaper, Der Spiegel, has published an article bearing on one of the problems the nation is facing, the war in its north. The article, “The Plight of Northern Yemen. A Life of Conflict, Dust and Ruins,” can be found at:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,74254,00.html#ref=nlint

Accompanying the article are some “RELATED SPIEGEL ONLINE LINKS,” to the following articles.

Photo Gallery: Life Amid the Ruins in Northern Yemen

‘Operation Scorched Earth’: A US Hand in Yemen’s Civil War (12/03/2010)

East of Aden: A President Struggles to Keep Yemen Together (11/11/2010)

Unraveling a Terror Plot: Terror Investigators Hunt for Yemen Bomb-Makers (11/01/2010)

The Unrest in Egypt: A Few of the Many Resources Available for a Quick Overview of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood

One of the primary worries that Western governments, that of the United States in particular, and Israel have had as the situation in Egypt has unfolded is that of the role of the primary Islamist organization in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood. On the assumption, still far from completely certain, that the Mubarak government will fall, the question is often being posed of whether the Muslim Brotherhood will content itself with functioning as a normal political party in accordance with the norms of the democratic process or it will take advantage of its being the most ideologically focused and disciplined of the opposition groups to push itself into power and thereafter mold Egypt into some form of an Islamic state.

There are a number of introductions to the Brotherhood available. One, which the students in my introductory class in Islam will have at hand, is the coverage provided in John Esposito’s popular, albeit perhaps rather uncritical, texbook, Islam. The Straight Path (see especially pp. 175-184). Most other texts in the genre will have more or less similar coverage.

Online, the New York Times’ “Times Topics” has a brief overview of the Brotherhood and links to pages of articles about the Brotherhood, at:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/m/muslim_brotherhood_egypt/index.html?inline=nyt-org 

The online English edition of the German Newspaper, Der Spiegel, has published an article on the Brotherhood in the context of the current situation in Egypt, “What the Future May Hold for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.” The article and other, related and background, materials can be accessed at or through:

http://www.spiegel.de/omternational/world/0,1518,742940,00html#ref=nlint

There is also, of course, course, Wikipedia, and its coverage of the Brotherhood, at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood

Ikhwanweb, the Muslim Brotherhood’s own and rather striking “official English website,” can be accessed at:

http://www.ikhwanweb.com/

The Pew Research Center Report Projecting a 35% Increase in Muslims over the Next 20 Years

The Pew Research Center has released a report projecting a 35% increase in the world’s Muslim population over the next 20 years, “rising,” in the words of the Executive Summary, “from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.2 billion by 2030.” The Executive Summary also tells us:

Globally, the Muslim population is forecast to grow at about twice the rate of the non-Muslim population over the next two decades – an average annual growth rate of 1.5% for Muslims, compared with 0.7% for non-Muslims. If current trends continue, Muslims will make up 26.4% of the world’s total projected population of 8.3 billion in 2030, up from 23.4% of the estimated 2010 world population of 6.9 billion.

The report can be found at: http://www.pewforum.org/The-Future-of-the-Global-Muslim-Population.aspx.

Some Information Sources re Egypt

Those interested in following and better understanding the developments in Egypt may find the following sources helpful.

1. CNN, at: http://www.cnn.com/

2. Besides providing relatively full and up-to-date on-going coverage of Egypt, the New York Times, provides important background information on, respectively, Egypt and Mubarak, at:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/egypt/index.html

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/hosni_mubarak/index.html

3. The United States government offers background material, at:

The CIA World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/eg.html

United States Department of State: http://www.state.gov/p/nea/ci/eg/

4. There is always Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt

5. Important background information can be found on the Carnegie Guide to Egypt’s Elections, at: http://egyptelections.carnegieendowment.org/

It is true that events have outrun some of the Guide’s coverage, but the “Featured Analysis” article, “Understanding Egypt’s Unrest,” which you can reach from the site is helpful.

Whether Barak Obama is a Muslim. The Results of an Informal Survey of My Students

At the end of the Pre-Course Test I administered on the first day of classes this semester I asked the students in the two sections of the introductory course in Islam that I teach whether or not Barak Obama is a Muslim. I offered them three options for their answer: (1) “Yes,” (2) “No,” and (3) “Maybe,” “Do not Know,” or “Have No Opinion.” (The next time around I’ll be a bit more careful in the options I offer.)

The results were as follows.  

(1) 21% answered “Yes,”

(2) 49% answered “No,” and  

(3) 30% answered “Maybe,” “Do not Know,” or “Have No Opinion.”

One might well ask both students and other readers first to consider the following argument schema: 

All believers in _____ are Muslims.

Barak Obama is a believer in _____.

Therefore, Barak Obama is a Muslim.

second to “fill in the blank,” identifying those things which only Muslims believe, and third to provide evidence sufficiently strong to warrant the belief that Barak Obama is a believer in those things and therefore a Muslim.

On the other hand, one might equally well ask both students and other readers first to consider the following argument schema:

No believers in _____ are Muslims.

Barak Obama is a believer in _____.

Therefore, Barak Obama is not a Muslim.

second to “fill in the blank,” identifying those things which no Muslims believe, and third to provide evidence sufficiently strong to warrant the belief that Barak Obama is a believer in those things and therefore not a Muslim.

Whether Khaled Abou El Fadl is a “Stealth Islamist”: 1

In my last post, “Whether Barak Obama is a Muslim. The Results of an Informal Survey of My Students,” I found myself applying some elementary Aristotelian logic to the question of whether or not, well, Barak Obama is a Muslim. As I had just come out of a class devoted to the analysis of some passages in Khaled Abou El Fadl’s The Great Theft. Wrestling Islam from the Extremists (Paperback edition; New York: HarperCollins, [2005] 2007), it occurred to me that I could also and perhaps more usefully and interestingly apply the same elementary Aristotelian logic to the question of whether or not Khaled Abou El Fadl is a “stealth Islamist.”

Abou El Fadl presents himself and is widely presented by others, that is, as a defender of a “moderate” Islam. However, in his Spring 2004 Middle East Quarterly article, “Stealth Islamist: Khaled Abou El Fadl,”  Daniel Pipes has famously, or infamously, advanced the claim that El Fadl is rather a “stealth Islamist” and not the moderate Muslim El Fadl and others would have us believe he is. The article can be read at http://www.meforum.org/602/stealth-islamist-khaled-abou-el-fadl.

For now, in the present post, let’s confine our attention to the question of whether he is an Islamist tout court; it is only if it turns out that he is an Islamist that it makes sense to ask if he is a stealth Islamist.  In analogy, then, with what I presented in that last post, one might well ask both my students and other readers to consider the following argument schema:

All believers in _____ are Islamists.

Khaled Abou El Fadl is a believer in _____.

Therefore, Khaled Abou El Fadl is an Islamist.

and then both to “fill in the blank,” identifying those things which only Islamists believe in, and to provide evidence sufficiently strong to warrant the belief that Khaled Abou El Fadl is a believer in those things and therefore an Islamist.

On the other hand, one might equally well ask both students and other readers to consider the following argument schema:

No believers in _____ are Islamists.

Khaled Abou El Fadl is a believer in _____.

Therefore, Khaled Abou El Fadl is not an Islamist.

and then both to “fill in the blank,” identifying those things which no Islamists believe in, and to provide evidence sufficiently strong to warrant the belief that Khaled Abou El Fadl is a believer in those things and therefore not an Islamist.

 

A Truth-Tabular Response to the Denial That Islam Is a Religion

In my introductory Islam course, the first question to be raised is, quite naturally, that of what Islam is. The first answer to be given to the question is, equally naturally, that it is a religion. We have to pause there, however, for there are important voices that have been raised in opposition to the thesis that Islam is a religion. Not least among those voices is that of Reverend Pat Robinson. In a statement made in response to the Fort Hood shooting, he said:

 But if we don’t stop covering up what Islam is, Islam is a violent, I was going to say religion, but it’s not a religion, it’s a political system, it’s a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world and world domination.                                     ….                                                                                                                                                              I think we should treat it as such and treat its adherents as such, as we would members of the Communist Party and members of some fascist group.

(MMTV, “Robertson uses Ft. Hood shooting to attack Islam, urges treating Muslims ‘as we would members of the Communist Party,’ ‘some fascist group’,” November 09, 2009: http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200911090042. From the November 9 edition of the Christian Broadcasting Network’s The 700 Club. Accessed January 15, 2010.) 

A useful tool in the analysis of statements like the above is that of the “truth table.” Let us, to illustrate, abbreviate the statement “Islam is a religion” as “R” and the words “True” and “False” as “T” and “F,” respectively. The truth table for the statement “Islam is a religion” is then: 

R                                                                                                                                                 T                                                                                                                                           F                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

In other words, or, actually, in words, the statement “Islam is a religion” is either true or false, one or the other, but not both. 

If we now also abbreviate the statement “Islam is a political system” as “P,” we find that we have a perhaps somewhat more interesting truth table in front of us:

R         P                                                                                                                                              T         T                                                                                                                                      T         F                                                                                                                                           F         T                                                                                                                                      F         F

This truth table sets forth the four logical possibilities: 

1. Islam is both a religion and a political system.                                                                     2. Islam is a religion but not a political system.                                                                                                                                           3. Islam is not a religion but a political system.                                                                                                                                           4. Islam is neither a religion nor a political system.

On the one hand, there are no other possibilities. On the other hand, at least and at most one of the four must be the case. 

 

I have two criticisms to offer here of Robinson’s statement. First, he has given expression to but the third of the above possibilities and seemingly, in his “but it’s not a religion, it’s a political system,” having simply passed over the possibility that Islam is both a religion and a political system. Our truth table tells us, however, that we must not simply pass over, at least without further examination, that possibility. It is at least thinkable.  In fact, moreover, it has been thought: in his January 23rd, 2011, post, “Sharia and Democracy,” on his blog, CultureWatch, the blogger Bill Muhlenberg, evidently no friend of Islam, tells us:

Islam is a political faith. It sees no separation between the sacred and the secular. Everything is religious, and everything is political. Westerners have a hard time comprehending this, since politics and religion in the West tend to be clearly distinguished.

(http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/01/23/sharia-and-democracy/)

Clearly Muhlenberg opts for the first of the truth table’s four possibilities, though he neglects others. The nice thing about the use of truth tables is that it forces one to recognize all relevant possibilities.

The second criticism that I have of Robinson, and indeed also of Muhlenberg, is that they have to have known that there have been and there are Christians for whom Christianity is very much a political faith, a “political system” as well as a religion. There is, to take but the most salient example, the doctrine known as Christian Reconstructionism. The website Apologetics Index has the following to say about it: 

More broadly, Reconstructionists believe that there are three main areas of governance: family government, church government, and civil government. Under God’s covenant, the nuclear family is the basic unit. The husband is the head of the family, and wife and children are “in submission’” to him. In turn, the husband “’submits’” to Jesus and to God’s laws as detailed in the Old Testament. The church has its own ecclesiastical structure and governance. Civil government exists to implement God’s laws. All three institutions are under Biblical Law, the implementation of which is called “’theonomy.”

(http://www.apologeticsindex.org/r10.html)

We can find confirmation for that description at the Reconstructionist website Chalcedon, which describes its bi-monthly magazine, Faith for All of Life, in the following words.

Faith for All of Life is the bi-monthly magazine of the Chalcedon Foundation committed to “Proclaiming the Authority of God’s Word Over Every Area of Life and Thought.” Formerly titled the Chalcedon Report, this insightful magazine has consistently put forth the message of the Kingdom of God since 1965.

(http://chalcedon.edu/faith-for-all-of-life/)

Let me close with three observations. First, for Christians to think of a “Kingdom of God” is hardly an aberration; think of the “thy kingdom come” of the Lord’s Prayer. But it seems impossible to take the notion of a “Kingdom of God” seriously without also taking the notion of a religious political system seriously. 

Second, if we adopt an alternative set of abbreviations, such that “R” abbreviates “Christianity is a religion” and “P” abbreviates “Christianity is a political system,” we find ourselves with a four possibility truth table for Christianity exactly parallel to the one given above for Islam.

Third, it seems obvious that for some Christians, Christianity is both a religion and a political system while for others, it is not. Why should it not be the case that, similarly, for some Muslims, Islam is both a religion and a political system while for others, it is not?

The Syllabus for Merrimack College’s RTS 2150, Islam, Spring 2011

The following is the syllabus for the introductory course in Islam that I am teaching this spring. I am posting it here as an invitation to others interested in Islam to join with my students and me in our exploration of Islam.

Syllabus for RTS 2150, Islam, Spring 2011

Instructor:                                                                                                                                   Richard E. Hennessey, Ph.D                                                                                                        Office: Sullivan 101                                                                                                                           (978) 837-5277                                                                                      richard.hennessey@merrimack.edu.                                              richard.e.hennessey@gmail.com

Class Times and Places:                                                                                                      Section A: Monday, Wednesday, Friday                                                                                       9:00 am – 9:50 am, Sullivan 105                                                                                                 Section B: Monday, Wednesday, Friday                                                                                       12:00 pm – 12:50 pm, Sullivan 18

Your God is one God: there is no god but He, the All-merciful, the All-compassionate. (Al-Qur‘ān 2: 163)

Introduction. Recent decades have seen the rise of a resurgent and even a militant Islam, an Islam seeming to some, with the late twentieth-century’s collapse of communism, to represent a, in fact the, major challenge in today’s world to Western civilization and its values and way of life. At the same time, in an increasingly integrated world, in which mosques are to be found in Methuen, Massachusetts, and Dubuque, Iowa, and Muslim cab drivers and college professors are now common-place, we are witnessing a dramatic intersection of the Islamic and Western civilizations.

Americans in particular and Westerners in general have therefore become far more aware of Islam. But this greater awareness has not necessarily been accompanied by a proportionally greater understanding of Islam; indeed, it can be argued that the violence of some of the events that have most contributed to the recent rise in Western awareness of Islam has given rise more to a misunderstanding than to an understanding of Islam.

RS 2150, Islam, therefore has as its primary goal that of enhancing the course’s participants’ understanding of Islam, the religion of some one-fifth of humankind, in its theological, historical, political, social and human dimensions. It will do this by three means. First, it will systematically compare and contrast Islam with the Western religious tradition, for the most part, though not exclusively, that of Christianity and with the Western rationalist and secular traditions. Second, the course will systematically test the understanding students thereby gain of Islam through its application to recent and current events. Third, the course will throughout engage in a service-learning related exploration of two controversial topics in Islam, the status and treatment of women and the nature and conduct of jihad.

The Course’s Basic Texts: We will be reading the following as our basic texts.

John L. Esposito, Islam. The Straight Path (4th edition; New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)

Khaled Abou El Fadl, The Great Theft. Wrestling Islam from the Extremists (Paperback edition; New York: HarperCollins, [2005] 2007)

Required Additional Reading:

The blog, “With Respect to Islam,” at: http://withrespecttoislam.wordpress.com/

Various class handouts

Recommended Additional Reading. Encyclopedias: It is also recommended that pertinent articles from the following encyclopedias (all found in the Merrimack College Library) be read:

John L. Esposito, editor in chief, The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World (4 vols.; New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995)

Most Rev. William J. McDonald, editor in chief, The New Catholic Encyclopedia (19 vols.; New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967)

Robert McHenry, editor in chief, The Encyclopedia Britannica (15th edition; 32 vols; Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1998)

It is further recommended that course participants consult both the rapidly growing literature on Islam available in the Merrimack College library and elsewhere.

Newspapers: The traditional news resources, such as newspapers, weekly news magazines, and radio and television news programs are also to be recommended because of their coverage of current events. Please note that the college makes available to students daily copies of one or more major newspapers at the Information Desk on Main Street in the Sakowich Center. The McQuade Library has available the hard-copy editions of the New York Times and the the Wall Street Journal.

Course participants may well want to take full advantage of the free subscription that is available to the “Today’s Headlines” of the New York Times, online at:

https://select.nytimes.com/mem/email.html

One can also subscribe to the New York Times online edition, at:

http://global.nytimes.com/

Those who prefer its more conservative editorial stance can subscribe to the online edition of the Wall Street Journal, at:

https://order.wsj.com/sub/f2

The latter two subscriptions are not, however, free.

I also recommend that one subscribe to the free online English-language newsletter of the German newspaper, Der Spiegel. To do so, go to:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/

and scroll down until you see “Newsletter” on the left.

Websites. One particularly important academic website is that of Dr. Alan Godlas, professor in the Department of Religion at the University of Georgia, at:

http://www.uga.edu/islam/

Another important site is that of Wikipedia. Since this site is edited openly, and not always or necessarily by objective and recognized experts, it needs to be used with some caution. But I almost always visit Wikipedia first or early as I begin to explore a new topic. The site is at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam

Class Participation: Class participation is one of the central components of the course. All participants in the course are expected to be precisely that, participants. They are moreover expected to be active participants, contributing substantially to the discussion and thus to the learning process of the course. Understand that the grade for class participation is an important component of one’s total grade.

Absences: One obviously necessary condition of active participation in and substantial contribution to the course is that of actually being present. Perfect class attendance should be and in fact is the expectation. Attendance will be taken and the percentage of classes attended will be used as a factor in the determination of the class participation grade.

Note to Student Athletes: It is the policy of this course that absences are excused for, but only for, games and matches, etc., that count in official league standing. Absences for try-outs, practices, scrimmages, etc., will not be excused.

Preparedness: A second condition of active participation in and substantial contribution to the course is that of being prepared for class. All participants will be expected to have read and thought about the material assigned and to come prepared to discuss it fruitfully.

Code of Participatory Conduct: Participants are expected to communicate with others as they would want others to communicate with them.

In-Class Laptop Use: Because the in-class use of laptop computers all too often detracts from the attention paid in class both by the ones using them and by those around them in class, such usage is forbidden in this class.

Make-up Quizzes and Exams: With the exception of the last quiz, the grade for any quiz not taken because of an unexcused absence will be 0, but it will be replaced by the grade earned on the next quiz. In the case of the last quiz, the replacing grade will be that of the previous quiz. If the first examination is missed, the grade earned on the second examination will be assigned to the first examination.

Grades: The grades for the course will be calculated in the following way. The semester will be divided into two halves. The grade for each half will be based on a grade for class participation (20%), the average quiz grade (30%), and an examination (50%). The grade for class participation will be calculated by multiplying the class participation quality grade by the percentage of classes attended.

Final Grade: If the grade for the second half of the semester is higher than that of the first semester, the grade for the second half of the semester will be the final grade for the course. If, however, the grade for the second half of the semester is not higher than that of the first semester, the final grade will be the average of the two.

Office Hours: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from 2:30 to 4:30, and by appointment.

Note to Students with Disabilities: If you have a learning or other disability and you think it possible that you will want to have either academic accommodations or academic support, please speak with the Academic Advisor for Students with Disabilities (ext. 5140).

Final Note: The contents of this syllabus are subject to change at the discretion of the instructor.

Reading Schedule:

Jan.

     24 (Monday) First Day of Class; Introduction to the Course

     26 (Wednesday) Esposito, pp. ix-5

     28 (Friday) Abou El Fadl, Introduction

     31 (Monday) Esposito, pp. 5-15

Feb.

       2 (Wednesday) Esposito, pp. 15-27

       4 (Friday) Abou El Fadl, Ch. 1

       7 (Monday) Esposito, pp. 27-35

       9 (Wednesday) Esposito, pp. 36-46

     11 (Friday) Abou El Fadl, Ch. 2

     14 (Monday) Esposito, pp. 46-61

     16 (Wednesday) Esposito, pp. 61-73

     18 (Friday) Abou El Fadl, Ch. 3

     21 (Monday) Presidents’ Day; no classes.

     22 (Tuesday) Monday schedule; Esposito, pp. 73-84

     23 (Wednesday) Esposito, pp. 85-92

     25 (Friday) Abou El Fadl, Ch. 4

     28 (Monday) Esposito, pp. 92-106

Mar.

       2 (Wednesday) Esposito, pp. 106-115

       4 (Friday) Abou El Fadl, Ch. 5

       7 (Monday) Review for Midterm Examination

       9 (Wednesday) Midterm Examination

     11 (Friday) Midterm; Abou El Fadl, Ch. 6.

     14 (Monday) Esposito, pp. 116-124

     16 (Wednesday) Esposito, pp. 124-140

     18 (Friday) Abou El Fadl, Ch. 7

Spring Recess

     28 (Monday) Classes resume; Esposito, pp. 141-152

     30 (Wednesday) Esposito, pp. 152-163

Apr.

       1 (Friday) Abou El Fadl, Ch. 8

       4 (Monday) Esposito, pp. 163-175

       6 (Wednesday) Esposito, pp. 175-185

       8 (Friday) Abou El Fadl, Ch. 9

     11 (Monday) Esposito, pp. 187-204

     13 (Wednesday) Esposito, pp. 204-221

     15 (Friday) Abou El Fadl, Ch. 10

     18 (Monday) Esposito, pp. 221-235

     20 (Wednesday) Esposito, pp. 235-249

Easter Recess

     27 (Wednesday) Esposito, pp. 250-264

     29 (Friday) Abou El Fadl, Conclusion

May.

       2 (Monday) Esposito, pp. 264-276

       4 (Wednesday) Esposito, pp. 276-2291; Class assessment

       6 (Friday) Esposito, pp. 291-294; Review for Final Examination

     10 (Tuesday) Second (Final) Examination Section B: 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm

     11 (Wednesday) Second (Final) Examination Section A: 11:30 am – 2:30 pm

Fear of Muslims in “Muslim Garb”

Recently analyst Juan Williams was fired by National Public Radio for having told Bill O’Reilly, on Fox Television’s The O’Reilly Factor, that: 

Look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130712737

One response to offer to Williams is that Muslims so dressed as to identify themselves as Muslims, and so in our current climate draw attention to themselves, are far less likely to be about to engage in an act of terrorism; the 9/11 criminals, we can recall, did just the opposite.

Another is to question just what counts as Muslim garb. On the one hand, we can peruse the photographic essay, “Pictures of Muslims Wearing Things,” and see some typical Muslims in “Muslim garb.”

http://muslimswearingthings.tumblr.com/

On the other hand, we read in an opinion piece, “Obama in India: Missed Opportunities,” that President Obama made a “decision not to risk being photographed in a head-covering going to the Sikh Golden Temple.” The author of the piece goes on to state:

Indeed, Obama’s unwillingness to visit the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar not only upset many Sikhs, but also reinforced the perception of his ambivalence and cautiousness regarding Islam. It seems clear he chose not to go as he would inevitably be photographed in a head covering that would without question become the next piece of evidence in the case for his being a crypto-Muslim.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/3706/

Putting the two hands together, Hussein Rashid wrote a scathing critique of the decision not to visit the Sikh Golden Temple, at:

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/husseinrashid/3593/obama_to_skip_golden_temple%3A_part_of_a_larger_problem_with_religion/.

The picture of Rashid accompanying the critique shows us another Muslim dressed as many Muslims dress.