I've never told you this but when I was a kid I wanted to be Muslim. And I think the reason I was exploring faiths is I've always been inquisitive, open minded and had an especially malleable identity. And my interest in Islam began when one of the mothers in the Ethiopian school I attended in Plano growing up (Ewket) did a presentation on it and I immediately went home and told my parents I was going to become a Muslim.
What's interesting is that this took place just a couple of years after 9/11 where Islam and Muslim people throughout the Western world had been demonized and suffered a uniquely vicious type of bigotry as a consequence. But I never saw it that way, through all the hysteria I only saw a religion of peace and love, I saw Friday prayers, I saw Zakat for the poor, I saw fasting, I never saw terrorism.
But as you get older you grow wiser and have a more nuanced view of things, and of course its critical to study some history and socio-politics to gain some context. The religion was, of course, started with the prophet Mohammed in 7th century in Saudi Arabia. And the belief is that the angel Gabriel came down from heaven to get him to recite the words of Allah. He then began traveling the region and spreading the gospel of the new religion with a band of followers. Even after Mohammed's death in 632 Islam was spreading like wildfire throughout parts of the Middle East, Europe and Asia and a group of leaders known as Caliphs continued Mohammed's work. And as a result of differences in beliefs about who the leadership should be (the Shia sect believed only the blood descendants of Muhammad should lead the faith and the Sunnis did not).
Now, the issues that are hotly contested and debated about Islam in the modern era includes terrorism, the oppression of women, violence against queer individuals, and punishing people (sometimes by death) who dare speak out against the religion that come from and exist in the Muslim world.
But by far the height of American's fixation with Islam came after the images of 9/11 began circulating in the media and we learned that Al Qaeda was behind it and the perpetrators were Muslim. As a result hate crimes towards Brown Americans, Muslims, and others people perceived to be associated with them such as Sikhs became astronomically high. According to the FBI there was a huge spike in attacks on Muslim Americans in the in the remaining months of 2001 after 9/11 from 28 to 481 recorded incidents. Muslim people talked about being shamed and physically assaulted in public. In the week after 9/11 there were three murders motivated by islamophobia including a Sikh named Balbir Singh Sodhi who was mistaken as a Muslim because of his Turban. My own parents were afraid to speak our native language Tigrinya in public because it sounds strikingly similar to Arabic due to its origins. My Dad reported being harassed at work because he seemed "exotic" and many people assumed he was Muslim. It was a confusing, overwhelming, frightening and devastating time.
What's interesting is how Islamophobia can be packaged: at times it is the one dimensional bigot simply looking for a scapegoat, or the intellectual who weaponizes the aforementioned problems in the Muslim world to justify spewing hate. But I think it would be wise to dissect each issue brick by brick starting with what landed Muslim people in trouble in the first place---terrorism. Terrorist movements that originate in the Muslim countries that fall along religious lines often revolve around the idea of "Jihad" which translates to the holy war. And the number one terrorist group of interest, particularly because they were responsible for 9/11, was Al Qaeda.
Al Qaeda is a Sunni fundamentalist terrorist group founded by Osama Bin Laden in the late 1980s and a lot of their grievances had to do with the corrupt royal family of Saudi Arabia and their relationship with the U.S government surrounding oil, and also America's unyielding support for the state of Israel which is a common enemy of groups throughout the Arab world. But beyond that a big part of what really drives this extremism is a need to avenge our constant military presence in the Middle East that brutalizes and kills civilians every day. In fact Osama Bin Ladin stated the event that drove him to 9/11 3 years after the terrorist attack “… the events that affected me directly were that of 1982 and the events that followed — when America allowed the Israelis to invade Lebanon, helped by the U.S. sixth fleet… As I watched the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me to punish the unjust the same way (and) to destroy towers in America so it could taste some of what we are tasting and stop killing our children and women.” So overall the leadership Al Qaeda is and was deeply invested in maintaining a paradigm of the Muslim world vs. the West.
Now the genesis of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is a bit different. It came largely as a result of the destabilization of the regional governments during the Iraq war. They were caste off by Al Qaeda after being deemed to extreme and sought above else to create a broader Islamic State that will be governed strictly under Sharia Law (a sort of Muslim fundamentalism that has origins in 8th century Islam) and also to "cleanse" the world of Shia Muslims and anyone else they view as committing heresy against their faith. And it actually originated from remnants of a disbanded Al Qaeda group that came together after a schism that was culminated over a long period of time and it faded away due to U.S military activities and then resurged in 2011 continued launching attacks throughout the region and eventually renamed itself the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in 2013.
Then, there is of course the subjugation of women in certain countries in the Muslim world. One of the worst offenders being Saudi Arabia who to my knowledge don't afford women the right to vote, only very recently started to allow them to go to places for entertainment and drive but legally women are still under the control of their husbands or some other men in their family so if they're "guardian" will not permit them to drive they can't, and they legally have to wear burkas when out in public. And if they violate any of these laws they can be subjected to serious consequences by the nation's religious police. Another extreme example would be Afghanistan particularly under their uniquely fundamentalist government the Taliban. And they have committed a slew of atrocities including starving widows, marrying off young girls to grown men, murders, rapes, kidnappings, severe common place domestic violence, impeding girls from education (in some cases burning down or poison gassing girls schools). And like other Muslim countries women are legally, religiously and culturally coerced into wearing a burka.
Next we have the treatment of openly and suspected queer people. Thankfully, in countries like Turkey that are very much secular LGBTQ+ individuals are much more free are often times out in the open and even partake in pride parades. But in some more reactionary countries throughout the Arab world for instance, it is a very bleak, dangerous existence. Homosexuality is punishable by death in Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, Kuwait and Iran. Unfortunately in some countries it is also commonplace to see public stoning and lashings of convicted homosexuals as well as a possibility of being sentenced to life in prison which of course is all justified by Sharia law. Additionally the cultural and familial rejection and humiliation that queer people face is insurmountable.
But no matter how free or authoritarian a society is there are always dissenters. These bright, courageous, independent thinkers are a beacon of hope for so many (particularly those in the aforementioned groups) but unfortunately in many places throughout the Islamic world there are serious consequences for speaking out. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that Islam is the forced state religion and in many cases those very principles are codified into the laws including the criminalization of apostasy (leaving the religion) and blasphemy (which has to do with speaking out/being critical of Islam openly). Leaving the Muslim faith is a capital offense in Afghanistan, Brunei, Mauritania, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. So its no wonder that people like Ayaan Hirsi Ali who are very forthright critics of Islam have to leave with a gaggle of body guards and cartoonists are brutally murdered for portraying Muhammad the wrong way, and many people all over the Muslim world live in a state of fear of expressing their beliefs.
But the best, most impactful and powerful thing we in the West can do is not profiling or denigrating Islam on its face but uplifting and empowering peaceful dissenters through compassionate foreign policy and investments in education for both genders. We cannot look the other way on human rights violations because of oil any longer, we have to be fair and impartial and stick up for the voiceless like we always pride ourselves on doing.
Stay tuned for Islam part II: Islam in American Discourse
Murray, Tonita. "The Oppressed Women of Afghanistan: Fact, Fiction, or Distortion." Mei, Apr. 2012, www.mei.edu/publications/oppressed-women-afghanistan-fact-fiction-or-distortion.
"Islam." History, Aug. 2019, www.history.com/topics/religion/islam.
Kuek Ser, Kuang Keng. "Data: Hate crimes against Muslims increased after 9/11." The World, Sept. 2016, www.pri.org/stories/2016-09-12/data-hate-crimes-against-muslims-increased-after-911.
Belle, Elly. "Yes, 9/11 Did Cause An Increase In Islamophobia." refinery29, Sept. 2020, www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/09/10019797/islamophobia-after-911-september-11-hate-crimes.
"Al-Qaeda Islamic militant organization." Britannica, www.britannica.com/topic/al-Qaeda.
Gagne, Andre. "9/11 anniversary: Understanding extremist motives could stop further violence." The Conversation, Sept. 2017, theconversation.com/9-11-anniversary-understanding-extremist-motives-could-stop-further-violence-83773.
Kruft, Kassidy. "Restrictions of Women in Saudi Arabia ." seri, www.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=e5b12de11c1d415291f587e286403cb3.
Simmons, Heather. "Dying For Love: Homosexuality in the Middle East." Human Rights & Welfare.
Interesting read, I think as westerners there is plenty of room for more education. The history of Middle Eastern countries relations amongst each other was not something I studied until college.