The Spread of Islam and Imagining Islam

To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure why we were assigned the readings we were for today. Ayoub only mentions Central Asia and China briefly, and Ernst not at all. Furthermore, Ernst's reading is something like preaching to the choir... there may be a cross-section of the Canadian and American public that are completely ignorant and hostile towards Islam, but I don't count myself (or the rest of the class) among this group. The intent behind these readings, I suppose, is to stimulate debate about the basic terminology and position we use to understand Islam. Even that last sentence marks the supposed bias that scholarship apparently takes towards the Muslim... we studying them.

For myself, I don't have any problem whatsoever understanding or accepting the unity between the Muslim and Western "worlds". In the first, the interaction and cultural cross-fertilization between Islamic and Christian nations from the medieval period onward is well documented. Only a completely and intentionally ignorant person could describe Muslim-Christian interaction across history as solely a clash of "civilizations". That being said, there were clashes. Many people describe Islam as a violent religion. This is fascinating when you consider how much violence has occurred in the name of Jesus Christ, or any other religious system for that matter. Religion, as an expression of humanity, is by nature violent... what's actually reprehensible here is Christian and secular-capitalist hypocrisy. In a similar vein, some people become enraged with Islam's treatment of women... while completely ignoring the startling levels of domestic abuse and rape that go on in the so-called "Christian" countries of the West. Also, check the New Testament... Jesus Christ wasn't particularly feminist either.

Any critique of Islam can also be raised against Christianity, certainly, and against our modern society in general. When it comes down to it, you can only judge people as people. Kindness, justice, and courage coexist with cruelty, apathy, and deceit in people. Just like we've been asked to study religion in terms of how it is expressed locally and in practice, let us also judge human beings by their behaviour rather than assuming that entire populations adhere to a totalitarian code.

By the way, I also have a suspicion - and this may just be a little nationalistic hubris - that Islamophobia is far more virulent in the United States than in Canada. I don't think this has anything to do with Canada being an "Enlightened" people, or any such nonsense. Rather, I believe that in light of September 11th, huge sections of the American population have been manipulated via news media to perceive Muslims a certain way, so as to manufacture support for real politik war efforts. This isn't a conspiracy... its quite blatant. In Canada the manipulation is far more specific, directed not at Muslims in general, but toward Afghanis. Even in this case the vast majority of news literature (I don't have a TV) is focused on vindicating Canadians of Afghan dissent from the fallacious accusations and illegal detentions imposed upon them by the American government.

Also, unless we're going to identify the academy as "Christian" or "Jewish", which is patently bogus, lets stop with this "US" and "THEM". I grew up with Muslims... one of my best friends in the world is a Muslim. And I'm not a Christian or a Jew. So who is "US" anyway?