As a fairly good example of the certain hysterical websites run by immature Muslims I’ve alluded to in posts announcing the establishment of Blogistan, I found on the MPACUK website this morning a good example of what software developers call a “regression”: an old bug which was squashed but which reappeared again. In this case, they seemed to have learned that attacking Muslims, calling them useless and lazy etc., isn’t a really effective method of da’wah. In response to a piece in today’s Independent, however, they’ve gone back into hand-wringing and mud-flinging mode. We’re too busy fasting to respond to this latest “attack on Islam”.
The article, entitled Independent Brands The Qur’an A ‘Hate Book’ - 2000 Mosque Leaders Too Busy Fasting To Stop It! is inaccurate from the start. When a newspaper says something, it means it appears in the editorial or “leader” column, explicitly as a comment from the editor or the owner or in a press release. In this case, the comments came from a well-known secular feminist, Joan Smith, of whom not much more is expected. Secular feminists have generally always been suspicious of religion, and particularly Islam.
I’ve not read the article as it’s under the paper’s “portfolio” scheme in which you have to pay more for one day’s access to one article than you do for the whole paper (I intend to visit Kingston library later today, insha Allah, to actually read yesterday’s edition if they have it). But it looks like same old, same old.
What’s most offensive about MPACUK’s piece is the general attack on Muslim leaders “too busy fasting” to write a letter to the Independent. The obvious reason why they don’t have the latest waffling from Joan Smith on their minds is because there has actually been a disaster, an earthquake which has claimed tens of thousands of lives, mostly lives of Muslims, as it happens. (And just days after the disaster, MPACUK found a way to blame the same mosque leaders for the low level of aid the British government has given to the affected region.) Perhaps some people will find time to write a response to an article in the weakest of Britain’s four “quality” papers whose comment pages are not even open to ready viewing; perhaps Asghar and the gang might take some time out from attacking Muslims to do this themselves.
Possibly Related Posts:
- Why I still blog
- The real value of online friendships (Hadley Freeman revisited)
- Panorama and other media coverage of the Gilderdale affair
- Muslim women driving, and contrasts on niqab
- Rod Liddle and the Independent
The failure to discriminate between opinion and reporting is a worry. As an author I often toil with the question of whether our community is mature enough to deal with characters within a story taking positions at odds with our own - would I be censured by those who cannot differentiate an element of plot development from the story as a whole? Would I be condemned by those who scour the pages for “Islamophobia” and seize on an isolated passage? As an English Muslim, I actually find much of the cries for censorship of the press quite distasteful. We do not come across as a very discerning bunch; why can we not argue our ground without demanding resignations and apologies? May the Blogistan project be successful in reclaiming the intelligent ground, amin.
Blogistan Relaunches
Yusuf Smith has relaunched Blogistan as “a Muslim group blog for mainstream, orthodox Muslims, offering commentary on both religious and social issues from a Muslim…
Salaams
Whilst I don’t disagree with most of the points you have made here, I see them from the perspective of someone who is a critical friend of MPACUK, despite having to take a fair amount of flack from Asghar and his mates in the past. I actually ended up getting invited to one of their functions recently, although I was unable to attend.
There is plenty that could be better about MPACUK (and let’s not forget that they are quite chummy with the MCB). However, this post has already provoked allegations on MPACUK forum that you are either traitors or secret Zionists (I’ve had that one, too), which is admitedly very silly, but the fact is you might as well be if this going to be your angle.
I think you should take a little time to read some works by Ron Geaves, Pnina Werbner and Muhammad Anwar, and get a proper feel for diaspora South Asian culture. Better still, pick up Robert Young’s Postcolonialism: A Short Introduction, and read the first paragraph. If your not looking from there, your just another dumb ghura.
Wasalaam
Yakoub
There is plenty that could be better about MPACUK (and let’s not forget that they are quite chummy with the MCB). However, this post has already provoked allegations on MPACUK forum that you are either traitors or secret Zionists (I’ve had that one, too), which is admitedly very silly, but the fact is you might as well be if this going to be your angle.
As-Salaamu ‘alaikum,
They only call me a “Zionist” because I’m capable of having a civilised conversation with the people at Harry’s Place or Judy at Adloyada. That doesn’t make me a Zionist - anyone who could say that obviously has never read anything else I’ve written and too lazy to find out (such as by searching for “Palestine” or looking at the category by that name on my main blog).
I believe that Muslim dialogue with other communities has to be done with credibility, and this credibility is undermined when people resort to intemperate language and flirt with racist elements by, for example, posting images from far-right websites on our own sites. We need to debate as mature adults and not resort to cheap shock tactics.
Cor blimey, what is going down on the world wide web? I am starting to recall why I abandoned visiting Muslims in Cyberspace four years ago - I used to frequent “iviews”, which started out great until the commenting tool became a forum by which Muslims would attack each other and non-Muslims would insult Islam. When I heard of the establishment of MPACUK some time back I wished them well — and I still do, although I am not too familiar with their work (due to my absence from cyberspace until recently). I did not realise that we were countering MPACUK — in fact I was simply grateful to be given the opportunity to contribute in some small way.
I am saddened that some find it so easy to slander others, simply because they have different opinions. You only have to read my own blog, for example, to appreciate that the accusations that we are traiters is extremely hurtful. Then again, I have sadly had to learn that this is something new Muslims must get used to, whenever we input from a different angle.
There may be something in the suggestion that some of us should familiarise ourselves with diaspora South Asian culture, but — at the same time — those born into Muslim families would do well to better appreciate the experience of Muslims such as myself. We are often alienated from the culture from which we originate, yet at the same time we are deeply rooted within it. We tend to be living without the safetynet of a close Muslim community and instead live quite isolated lives. We are also tied to a historical, sometimes liberal tradition which means that we sometimes see things differently.
However, the realiy is that my friends span all ethnic communities and a diaspora experience is not universal - nor the new Muslim experience. Why don’t we all just try to get much better at “listening” - we might all get on better and not then resort to slandering one another? Just some thoughts. Wasalam.
Salaams
Our community is consumed with petty ‘tit-for-tat’ infighting. I agree that some Muslim websites don’t assist in developing a sense of brotherhood and common courtesy within our ranks, thus leaving us open to division - however the way to fight it is to set the standard. Lets raise the tone of islamic discourse, outside the mosques, inside, at college, on the streets and yes on the web. If enough Muslims adopted the correct standard you can imagine all those who fail to keep to the standard would soon realise they would not get a hearing. I have seen some positive developments with some islamic groups recently. We have got to change the environment in which we converse, de-polute it without, of course, leaving debating the important issues of the day.
Tit-for-tat attacks, shock tactics, and name-calling (ie ‘hysterical’, ‘immature’) seriously impede unity and the sense of brotherhood we so sorely lack.
We’ve got too many people standing in our way to be wasting time giving out bad vibes to each other.
Constructive criticism? God knows we need it. But the bickering should be thrown out along with the lateness, the bad parking, and the bad English.