I was thinking of a Father’s Day poem I was going to write, when I read an article this morning that distracted me. It was by Afshan Jafar, an associate professor of sociology at Connecticut College. The article was titled “Yes, I wish we Muslims could stop terrorism”. It was partly as I expected, the impact of terrorism on Muslims is greater in the scale of injury, death and sheer terror in predominately Muslim regions of the world, and if there was a way, they would love as much as Christians do, to find a way to root out and drive out extremists. However, I also learned something new, or more accurately was inspired with a different perspective.
She points out how we, and her students, think we can answer the fill-in-the-blank question “Muslim women are…?” yet when she asks the next question, which is “Christian women are…?” This question makes no sense. How, they ask could we speak for all Christian women or make a universal remark about them? Yet we do not afford Islam a similar understanding that its adherents are really billions of people with diverse and complicated histories. It brings out our biases, and lack of understanding about the extent and diversity of Islam religion and its adherents, Muslim’s. I know plenty that believe that the religion is inherently violent, and therefore adherents are too somehow guilty by association to extremists. Yet the situation is far more complicated. They were born into a culture and heritage, just as a Christians. Many of us where born into Christianity, yet have wide differences in what that means, Catholic, or Baptist or other… and furthermore all kinds of social strata, economic opportunity, and variety in education opportunities and culture. She makes a case that “It is this falsely constructed singular identity which makes us think that the cause of extremism is somehow inherent in Islam and not a product of specific political, social and economic histories of a region or country”.
Afshan described her life as young girl in Pakistan, living with a freedom that we would recognize, a freedom to walk to friend’s homes to play and socialize, to go to school without fear. How when she was 12 they celebrated the end of dictatorship with the election in a woman, Benazir Bhutto, as prime minister of Pakistan. How freedoms and progressiveness that prevailed decades ago, have been rolled back dramatically in so many parts of the world, replaced with oppression, fear and restrictions. Imagine a woman leading a predominately Muslim country and presenting opportunity for advancement of women, and in general democratic principles. Where are we now? Why is the world regressive or retrograde, like we are going back in time, with less understanding with fewer freedoms, and more fear?
To say that this retrograde, or failure in culture is a problem with Islam, and Muslims is too simple. Christianity, the West, the US, own some responsibility in a battle for civilization and civility. Remember we funded the mujahedeen as a wedge against the Soviet Union, thus giving rise to the Taliban. We watched as the Arab Spring unraveled when it met the might and resistance of dictatorial regimes. We allowed red-lines to be crossed with-out consequence. The Western world has put oil ahead of humanity and rights. We are complicit in the rise of some of these extremist groups. We must continue to engage and be part of the solution in fighting Islamic extremist terrorism, and do it with the help of Muslims and predominately Islamic countries. We all own the impact of children that know not what freedom means… “The casualties have been hope and optimism, long abandoned by the old and unknown to the young” … I agree. I also believe that for society to win, mother’s will make the difference, by encouraging and fighting for education, encouraging a culture of tolerance, and an understanding of history, and hope for the future. Father’s too will be critical to show strength without violence, to show reasoning without bias, to allow for openness and understanding. These things are what will allow society and civilization to move forward and reverse the degradations of culture at a micro-level. Government and religious leaders need to work together to create an environment that allows the positive advancement of civilization, while simultaneously rooting out and exterminating evil. I’m an optimist, I believe that it may take a long time but we will get there with the help of education and perspective.
I’ll get to the Father’s Day post later this week!
