Conservatism vs. Extremism
by admin
In the film, Asra refers to certain mosque members as extremists. How does one draw the line between religious conservatism and extremism? Did Asra make a tactical error in employing this term in her activism? What political dangers are associated with the label of extremism? Is there any upside to using the term?
Tags: extremism
11 COMMENTS
The Mosque in Morgantown is a production of Version One Productions, Inc., in association with WGBH. It is a presentation of the Center for Asian American Media with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding was provided by the LEF Moving Image Fund. PBS broadcast is presented by WETA-TV, Washington, DC. © 2009 Version One Productions, Inc.
Be sure to check out Asma T. Uddin’s excellent analysis on this topic, originally published on Altmuslim and Beliefnet. Asma is the Editor-in-Chief of AltMuslimah.com.
What this Nomani woman wants is not an issue of conservatism vs. extremism. Someone needs to explain to her that needs to discontinue this, because it is tantamount to apostasy. She is trying to juxtapose her religion of American Feminism with the religion of Islam. A prayer is only valid for a woman praying next to a man when it is in Makka, or as some scholars say, when a husband prays next to a wife. The man who prayed behind the woman needs to go back and make up his prayer, because it does not count.
Furthermore, Westerners would serve themselves well if they were to grasp what is considered extremism in Islam. To a Muslim the word is more literal in meaning that it is taking an established concept beyond what is correct. For example it is good to pray, but to spend 24 hours in a day praying would be extremism. Women are required to be in a separate section of the mosque, but banning them all together would be extremism, unless the mosque was too small for both men an women. In situations like this it is allowed to ban them, because women are not required to pray in the mosque, but men are. This is a mercy for them, because they have to deal with a whole lot more do to their biology than men do.
Conservatism in Islam would be more along the lines of choosing to do something which is good but not required or avoiding something bad which is not forbidden. The thing that this woman wants does not fall into that category, and it is simply wrong within the religion of Islam, and to believe otherwise can actually remove one from the fold of Islam, because it is such a well established concept. An example of conservatism would be to fast every other day, but there is no mosque in the world that does what this woman wants. This is because it is not an issue of conservatism or liberalism, but it is an issue of do you practice the religion of Islam or not.
Since I did not wish to post an essay to your site Ms. Huckabee, I did not respond. I made the comments that I thought relevant to the discussion. I am a Muslim who lived formerly in the Toledo, Ohio area where 3 terrorists were indicted in 2006. These individuals prayed in all 3 local community masjids and were only encouraged by the radical ideology that was being spun through the community at the time. Therefore to see how Ms. Nomani’s quite genuine concerns about such matters is belittled, even by the producer of the documentary is discouraging. Many like the angry Muslim woman are in denial when confronted with the truth. But one can find the facts and why Ms. Nomani makes a valid point by investigating the Toledo terrorism trials and investigating the Holy Land Foundation trials. Sites related to homeland security matters can provide plenty of information on ISNA’s connection with many of a radical mindset. It is a matter of record, you can find it on the internet. Your attitude toward the facts that I have put forward does not encourage any further discussion on the matter.
Thank you for your reply, QP. There is a difference between facts and allegations, as I’m sure you know. I obviously take Ms. Nomani’s concerns seriously or I would not have included them in the documentary. But I do think concrete evidence and details are crucial to any discussion about this issue, and that we must move beyond merely assigning guilt by association.
I’ll begin by saying these battles within the Islamic world aren’t new – we’ve always had them. The Islamic world is not a monolith, never has been. We’re united in the oneness of our holy book – that is is the word of God….but we disagree on the manner in which you apply the divine guidance.
What seperates the muslim community is this: –
conservatives believe there’s only one way to be a good, god-fearing muslim and that really, it’s their way or the highway. The belief that the only way to maintain a strong community is if everyone is follows exactly the same line of thinking.
More ‘liberal’ types (I hate the word ‘moderate’) tend to be those that want to apply the Quran in a manner that befits other beliefs they hold – feminism, social justice, and wider egalitarianism as examples.
I consider myself a ‘liberal’ type because it’s patently obvious to me that even the person we as mslims consider to be the best example of the Quran in action, the prophet Muhammad (Peace be unto him) lived certain experiences before acknowledging he was indeed a messenger of God. He experienced life as a young man with traders, travelling with caravans in the deserts of Arabia – and joined, effectively, what was a trading union, a collective of people interested in egalitarian principles that sought to protect these workers from the cruelty and injustice of heads of business that often ripped them off.
His experiences living with a beduoin family in the desert, in a very tribal society taught him many things – aspects of his society that he commended and others that he critiscised and openly challenged. It was the view of those within this tribal structure – those that sought to destroy Islam – that ‘this was the way we’d been living for generations, that is was either their way or the highway’.
That’s why I see myself as a ‘liberal’ – because I see the irony in adopting that ‘my way or highway’ view when we all know as muslims that this negative attitude toward egalitarian principles would have stopped the Prophet dead in his tracks had it succeeded to suppress him and the muslim community of his time.
Cheers and g’day form Oz.
I wish to further add that there is genuine concern about the ideology of many of these “conservatives” in Mosques who follow ISNA and it network of organizations connected with the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood seeks the destruction of the US from within. Conservatism of that brand easily leads to extremism. An enlightening article can be found here:
http://www.investigativeproject.org/1068/ramifications-of-a-possibly-armed-muslim
As your film showed the Morgantown Mosque takes its directives (moon sightings, etc) from ISNA.
ISNA is part of a network, initially Saudi-funded, that advocates a very intolerant form of Islam called wahhabism . I am a Muslim and have been inside such mosques and seen how they have open-houses for non-Muslims and smile and mislead them but privately teach that Muslims should not associate with Christians and Jews. The brand of Islam taught in such mosques controlled by the ISNA, NAIT, MPAC, CAIR network is a very intolerant kind of Islam that easily leads to hatred for others. This hatred may take a minor form in an act such as discrimination to a huge form such as the devastation of terrorism. Teaching hate is a dangerous thing. Yes – the ideology of these “conservative” mosques is dangerous in my opinion.
Moderate Muslims rarely build mosques any longer as the ISNA network of many organizations and of the more radical ideology quickly try to take over every existing moderate mosque. My former mosque in Ohio was taken over by such people. It is very sad. Because most mosques are controlled by people with this Wahhabist radical ideology, it is right that Homeland Security be concerned with what is taught within them.
The radicals have taken away our sacred places of prayer and turned them into political forums for hate and propaganda. I too lost my mosque in much the same way that Ms. Nomani lost hers.
QP isn’t a Muslim. QP is a poser who thinks anyone who prays in a mosque is a potential terrorist. The Islamic Society of North America absolutely does not advocate isolation from other faiths or people. The groups mentioned are not of the Wahabi or Salafi ideology, nor do they “seek destruction from within”. The statements made by QP are of the Muslim-basher ilk that live in cyberspace. They are so bent on ridding America of Muslims they stop at virtually nothing to make it happen. Even Asra Nomani would shun these people.
I tend to agree. I sent a personal email to QP with an invitation to contribute the full details of what happened at (her?) mosque in Ohio to the “Community Stories” section of our Web site. I included an assurance of anonymous attribution. So far I have received no response. Instead, QP has continued to post comments around the site making these claims but providing no evidence. In my view, this is no way to promote the kind of real discussion that is needed in Muslim communities. It fuels suspicion and prejudice on both sides.
QP, please be in touch.
Here’s my take on this issue as the director of THE MOSQUE IN MORGANTOWN:
If you are so convinced of the correctness of an ideology that you see those who do not embrace it as less than human, you are heading toward extremism. In the religious context, “less than human” may mean less than worthy of salvation. And yes, historically this kind of intolerance has too often been the beginning of a ‘slippery slope’ to violence.
But extremism is by no means the exclusive product of conservatism. My last major film explored the history of socialism, which demonstrates how this tendency also played out on the political left. A good idea went bad quickly when individuals in power decided those who didn’t accept their vision were of less value than those who did. Eliminating these ‘reactionaries’ became justified in the service of creating a new society.
So how do we draw the line? I believe Asra is dead on target with her focus on intolerance born of zealous, rigid ideology. For her, the views of some mosque members on women, the West and non-believers were indicative of a larger intolerance—and warning signs of possible extremism. But I think in this case we must separate extremism from traditionalism. Were these views really markers of an active, dehumanizing intolerance, or merely unexamined vestiges of “the way things have always been”? It is important to make this distinction, because the latter seems to call for a very different means of confrontation.
Boston, MA
The space separating conservatism and extremism is an abyss–deeper than the the Marianas Trench. But it’s only as wide as a footstep.
Washington, DC