islamicate

Muslim American Statement Against Torture

Full statement and signatories at Religion Dispatches. Please sign and publicize.

We believe America must not torture and it is the ultimate act of being American to hold our government responsible for actions done in our name. We believe, as Pres. Kennedy, Pres. Reagan, and Sec. Clinton, that the US can be a shining beacon on a hill. When Rev. Winthrop made that statement over 300 years ago, he said that we must hold ourselves to higher standard both because others will, and because it is right.

We applaud President Obama for shining light on these shameful practices. We now need to ensure that we do not participate in torture ever again. As citizens, it is incumbent on us to be aware of what is being done in our name. We urge President Obama to meet this challenge as well.

We cannot be deaf to the voice of justice, but must establish it. Torture is not just.

My #torture statement at ACLU blog

Find it here.

Would you like a cup of urine with your anal rape? #torture

The hits just keep coming. h/t noufel

The next time I hear some idiot refer to Jack Bauer in defense of torture, I want to ask him what he thinks of Jack Bauer rogering terrorists with a broomstick. You’ve never seen that in the hours of not-so-subtle pro-torture TV drama we’ve seen since 2001, have you? Never saw Andy Sipowicz cornhole a skell on NYPD blue? Or Michael Chiklis on The Shield making a suspect drink his pee? Me neither. Something tells me that might have hurt their ratings.

Muslim Women are People too

Nura Sediqe has a great article up on Muslim women. Read it.

Ironically, the same religion that is demonized for oppressing women is the one that has historically produced great examples of women who have been empowered by Islam to serve as role models for communities globally, from Betty Shabazz to contemporary leaders such as Dr. Ingrid Mattson, president of ISNA, the largest Muslim organization in North America.

Or my own personal role model, my mother, Salmenna Sediqe, who was recently elected President of the Islamic community in Toledo, Ohio. She is a survivor of war who managed not only to flee her war-ridden country but also to move beyond the painful circumstances of her home country and continue her civic engagement, empowered by the very religion that is often viewed as being responsible for a lack of women’s rights. And yes, she has done this all whilst choosing to cover her hair.

Tikkun Love

Tikkun blog likes me. It really, really likes me. More importantly, it puts me in some great company, I'm not sure I'm worthy of, but as long as those guys don't complain, I won't either.

The finger in #IranElection

The photo is doctored, but it's too good not to share. Original photo.

Persepolis 2.0

Envisioning the Iran Election through the work of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis.

It was easier to hate Iran before we say their faces in #IranElection

[Apologies for the hashtags in the titles recently. However, my RSS feed goes straight to Twitter, so I need to keep track there.]

David Bromwich writes:

If you want to kill with a clean conscience, the faces of the enemy had better be blank. Start to see them as human beings and it becomes harder to blockade and bomb them, to mine, and pollute, and "destabilize." President Clinton had no imagining of the disease he would bring to the innocent in Sudan by the "surgical" missile attack on the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in 1998. George W. Bush had a happy warrior's notion of the fury he would unleash on Falluja when he gave the order to destroy that city after the election of 2004. The Sudan bombing was treated by the American press as a distraction from a sex scandal. The second siege of Falluja--tens of thousands of houses crushed or cratered--was hardly covered at all.

From Iran Was an Easier Enemy Before We Saw Their Faces

Missing the Point

Indeed.

I don't know anyone who wanted to close the detention facility at Gitmo because of where it was -- but rather because of what it was. It's not merely a symbol, but is the embodiment of the implementation of a bad policy. If you close Gitmo but carry on the same bad policy elsewhere, you're playing a shell game, Mr. President.

[From Missing the Point]

Michael Jackson is Dead, so is Neda [update]

Yesterday, June 25, 2009. Michael Jackson died; God rest his soul. I was not going to blog about his passing. He is an artist, a celebrity, why is his death more important than any other? He was an artistic genius, of that there can be no doubt. What he did for music and dance in pop is unparalleled. However, he was still a human being. He had an impact on my childhood, but I did not know him. In many respects, because of his fame, he was unreal. He was no closer to me than Rumi, whose poetry speaks to me in a powerful way, but who died centuries ago. I was not going to write about his passing, until I saw how other Muslims were writing about him. The emphasis was on the fact that he was Muslim, and that's what makes this a story in the community (at least Muslim Matters makes a theological argument as to why it's important).

When the story of Jackson's conversion came up, I asked the question "so what?" So what if he was a Muslim, or believed to be Muslim? Why is this important to the Muslim community? I understand the appeal of claiming someone famous as part of the faith tradition, but as I said before, OBL is famous too. Jackson's musically creative period all happened before he supposedly became Muslim. His genius was not expressed as a Muslim. Do you want to take credit for something that is controversial, possibly prohibited, and done by a non-Muslim? After he supposedly became Muslim, did he, as the Qur'an says, command the good? Were his riches given to help the needy? Did he use his fame to mobilize people to help the less fortunate? I do not want to criticize him, we all make our own choices, but I want to understand why the Muslim community fêtes him in this way after his death.

To apotheosize him is diminish him to a caricature of a "famous Muslim." It means that as Muslims we are joining in the cult of fame, and not interrogating the things that we should be emulating. Mourn the loss of a man. Mourn the loss of an artist. Mourn the loss of a genius. Mourn him as a Muslim if you believe it to be true. But do not let that mourning for a man many have no personal connection to surpass the mourning for those who are dying from poverty; who are dying fighting for justice; who are suffering in Sudan. Cry for the four boys who were amputated today. Cry for Neda.

Update: Ali Eteraz sheds some light on the need to own MJ by Muslims.

Television Documentaries and the #IranElection

Recently PBS ran a Frontline documentary from 2002 on Iran. While I applaud the effort to give some necessary background to the situation in Iran, there were some problems. Jordan Robinson wrote a letter offering some critique to the piece. I quote it below with permission:

Subject: Rebroadcast of 2002 "A Clash That's Centuries Old" a disservice to US public

Dear Frontline Senior Editorial Team,

I just finished watching your 2002 broadcast of "A Clash That's Centuries Old," part of your "Terror and Tehran" series. While I appreciate your effort to inform the American public life about life in Iran and provide context to contemporary issues in the country and internationally, I was disappointed by the report for many reasons.

Much of my dismay comes from the report's reductionist copy and narrow treatment of Iran's history and contemporary travails. Quotes such as Elaine Sciolino's "Belief doesn't allow democracy" are frankly laughable. Although Ms. Sciolino has been reporting from Iran for decades and was a reporter for respected outlets such as Newsweek and the NY Times, her quote flies in the face of a serious swath of academic analysis and commentary by leading Iran scholars and those familiar with Iran's mixture of religion and the exercise of state power.

Although Iran's democratic institutions are limited by the very real constraints imposed by an elite class of jurists, I think it would be a mistake to characterize Iran as devoid of democracy and the Islamic legal tradition as a complete hindrance to the exercise of citizen power in informing representation and policy making. I think it's helpful to remember that America's high jurist class (Supreme Court) is also appointed, and limits the "free" exercise of citizen agency by declaring what is Constitutional and what is not. I don't mean to say there is an equality between the U.S. and Iran in terms of number and quality of freedoms and political and social health, but I do think it's necessary to provide the public with reporting that provides the adequate color to paint a fuller picture of the messiness that makes up the human experience, especially the Iranian one.

I understand that this was broadcast in 2002, one year after the attacks of 9/11. But to rebroadcast it now after all that has happened in Iran is disappointing. I say this in particular now because of the grave political consequences that happen with poorly informed foreign policy creation.

The whole clash cliche I hope will be retired soon. Although it's a catchy and easy frame for a story, It helps no one living in such a complex world.

A poignant quote to emphasize this point comes from a piece by Peter Beamont published in The Guardian's Comment is Free: "If I have learnt a single thing from the last 15 years covering international crises, it is how simplified or distorted depictions of events are more easily established as given truths than challenged. And how dangerously, as Iraq made clear, those false images feed into the decision-making processes of western governments."

For the past week or so, people from across Iran's socio-economic and religious spectrum have banded together to protest the latest election results showing the great diversity (not contradictions) of Iranian life. A fair number of articles have come out discussing the power of the images that have emerged from the protests - young and old faces seen not chanting "Death to America," but "Death to the Dictator." The peole struggling for a fair hearing to redress their election grievances have been humanized through tweets, blogs and videos featuring people who want to determine their own future and are emboldened and empowered enough to believe their voice and their protest means something.

The simplistic story board and copy of this report flies in the face of what we have seen over the past week or so. This report could have remained just another piece of reporting among many, but juxtaposed to the plethora of media we receive on a daily basis covering the protest movement there, this report looks more and more like a poor piece of journalism.

Sincerely,
Jordan Robinson
Seattle, WA

My Thoughts on the #IranElection

inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un - We are from God and to God we return

The unrest in Iran has been going on for almost two weeks, and I have posted nothing here for several reasons:

1. The story is unfolding in internet time, and the updates are coming fast and furious on Twitter. I am geared for academic time and television time, both of which move significantly slower than internet time.
2. Because of the speed at which things are moving, people with deeper knowledge and/or better resources are better positioned to give real knowledge on the situation. I do not want to add to the noise in the blogosphere or on Twitter.

I am twitter, and you can follow me there or on the sidebar on the left. However, here a list of people you should be following:

1. Shahrzadmo
2. PersianKiwi
3. Elizrael
4. Kawdess
5. Meedan
6. MidEastYouth
7. Dakster9
8. AslanMedia
9. Juan Cole

In addition, Andrew Sullivan has been doing an amazing job on his blog of covering the situation, and Juan Cole is as reliable as always. Richard Cohen has been updating at the Op-Ed section of the NYT, and Gary Sick is providing good analysis as well.

In terms of strategy for Twitter, I've heard two things: change your location to Tehran and don't re-Tweet people's names. I've also heard the opposite, b/c by changing your location, it contributes to noise on the stream and decreases reliability of sourcing. The same for RTs, if you don't know who the source is, you can be contributing misinformation. It really depends on who you're following and what their requests are. The goal should be to keep people safe and transmit reliable information.

I support the protestors. I do no support Mousavi. The people's voice must be heard. A week ago I did not think that these protests would upset the clerical regime, but now with Khamenei being so politically tone deaf, he may actually be precipitating that which he does not want, the end of vilayet-e faqih. Although I am not a close Iran watcher, I am concerned that a sudden breakdown in the regime would be politically problematic because I am not sure who could step into the political vacuum without re-creating the same system, but without clerical support. That's not a good position.
What I am truly surprised at is how deaf Khamenei is. There is a strong religious resonance to what is happening now, of the will of the people being denied, of the justice unserved, of true leadership subverted. This echoes with the Saqifa, with Siffin, with Kerbala. It may not be explicit, but in a culture that uses religious imagery so openly, the association must be there.
Then, today, Father's Day in the US, a week after Mother's Day in Iran, comes Neda. Justice will come. May it come soon.

I Did Not Know That Either

Turns out there are 32 polling places open in the US for the Iranian election.

[From I Did Not Know That]

Religious Witness Against Torture

March tomorrow, June 11, 2009, in front of the White House. In the "credit where credit is due" department, ISNA is participating.

That's The Thing About Ninjas...

Too funny not to share.

You never realize it, but they've been right there the whole time.

[about colon blank via boingboing]

[From That's The Thing About Ninjas...]

NYC Event: Juan Cole

Juan Cole will be speaking at Columbia on June 11, 2009 at 7PM. Event is free, but RSVP is needed.

Details here. RSVP here.

NYT: The Intersection of Islam, America and Identity

The Muslim Voices Festival has begun, and I'll be posting soon on Religion Dispatches. However, the NYT has started running some coverage, including this piece on Muslim women artists. Will tryt to check it out (after the music festival) and report.

New Critique of Those Who Love to Criticize Academics

For those unfamiliar, the "Academic Bill of Rights" is designed to curtail free speech in American universities, particularly by professors involved in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies.

A new report by Free Exchange on Campus, a coalition of groups opposed to David Horowitz's "Academic Bill of Rights" and similar measures, argues that the entire movement is built on false premises and is designed to attack higher education. The report, "Manufactured Controversy," notes that legislative successes for this movement have been minimal, but that the effort still needs scrutiny.

[From New Critique of Those Who Love to Criticize Academics]

Even the Dutch Talking Smack Now

So let's see, we have the guts to torture these people, shown them our power and how "strong" we are, but we are too weak to have them in our country.

TPM Reader BB, a "proud citizen of the Netherlands," says it's time the U.S. man up and stop NIMBYing the Gitmo detainees:

…

Let's take those war criminals (of which dozens have been tried and sentenced) from the Balkan conflict as an example. Here is a group that still has lots of support (Serbs primarily) all across Europe. They are in cells in the Hague which is driving distance from their homeland. Not like some poor Afghan farmer totally divorced from his people, these people have strong support living with a few hours drive!! Almost nothing could stop them from attacking and trying to release there leaders (and heros), or at least taking revenge on the country they are incarcerated in. The REAL danger to this court pails to anything the perceived Gitmo people could possibly do.

Just look at the history of the Balkan conflict, its horrible geenocide and the people who did the killing, and then grab a map to see where the two countries lie, you will get the picture. Then do the same for the Afghan conflict ... Kinda makes you giggle.

…

[From Even the Dutch Talking Smack Now]

The White (Wo)Man's Burden

Fatemeh F. drops some science:

These wars actively undermined the work of feminist and women’s organizations within war-torn countries; in a time of conflict, everyone’s first priority is survival and winning, rather than concern about “women’s issues.” The Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan was founded for the societal and political advancement of Afghan women in 1977, well before the United States aimed to “liberate” them in 2001. Yet few feminist organizations recognized that RAWA, or any other group led by Afghan women, was fighting its own battle against the Taliban.

Text to donate money to refugees

Via Aziz:

Earlier I mentioned a few ways you can donate to various relief agencies working for Pakistani refugees in the Swat valley and other areas affected by the ongoing warfare with the Taliban. Now comes the most innovative initiative for fundraising I've ever heard of: donations via SMS. In a nutshell, you text the word SWAT to 20222 from your cell phone, which automatically adds a $5 donation to the UN relief agency via a simple charge on your cell phone bill. The service is powered by mGive and can be used for essentially any fundraising initiative. The Pakistan relief program is administered by the United Nations and was announced today by Secretary Clinton herself at the State Department:

Jesse Ventura on Torture

I'm liking Jesse Ventura more and more.

Last week:

give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders

This week:

"If waterboarding is OK, why don't we let our police do it to suspects so they can learn what they know?" he asked. "If waterboarding is OK, why didn't we waterboard [Timothy] McVeigh and Nichols, the Oklahoma City bombers, to find out if there were more people involved? ... We only seem to waterboard Muslims... Have we waterboarded anyone else? Name me someone else who has been waterboarded."

Yusuf Islam interview

From CNN:

It's true. I used to be prejudiced -- as prejudiced as anyone about Islam. ... And then I was given the opportunity of reading the actual source, the Quran itself, without anybody forcing me or looking over my shoulder and saying, "What do you think?" It was just me in my space.

And the more I read the Quran, the more I realized that it was like an incredible matrix of connection with Christianity and Judaism. I mean Jesus, Moses, the religion of Abraham in this book! And I said, "Wow, how come I didn't know this before?" It was kind of like a secret.

So that was kind of my discovery, and a lot of people, I don't think, have gone through that process because they've seen Islam as a headline -- and you never learn anything about a headline. Because headlines, you know -- people make things up, to be honest.

Onward Christian Soldiers [update]

From TPM. If you haven't heard, Donald Rumsfeld was using Bible quotations to justify what was going on in Iraq.

No doubt, the big story starting off the week. In GQ, Robert Draper does a first look back at Don Rumsfeld's tenure at the DOD, with a focus on internal briefing documents which wrapped the day's military events out of Iraq with smoteful biblical quotations about the righteous conquering the wicked and the infidel.

Here's the slideshow.

[From Onward Christian Soldiers]

Dan Varisco from Tabsir shares his thoughts as well:

The Bible is a big book with plenty of quotations for politicians and other enemies of clear thinking. Thomas Jefferson came up with his abridged Bible based solely on the Gospels. He saw value in the ethics but not much in the legal wrangling and superstitions. Now it appears that former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld took the opposite approach, striking out the blessed beatitudes like “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9) and “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44). Who needs that when there is all that hellfire and brimstone and enemy bashing early on? Apparently not Mr. Rumsfeld, nor his adoring boss, Mr. Bush.

It appears that even though the Defense Secretary was not very adept at devising a plan for post-war Iraq security, he did know a thing or two about Photoshop. You can see a slide show of the illustrated covers of his “Worldwide Intelligence Update” (oxymoron that it was) on the GQ website. It is not hard to see why it was given “no distribution” classification.

Update:

According to the Washington Monthly, we have to remember, it's not like there was a bubble here. They knew this was a problem:

"In the days before the Iraq war, Shaffer's staff had created humorous covers in an attempt to alleviate the stress of preparing for battle. Then, as the body counting began, Shaffer, a Christian, deemed the biblical passages more suitable. Several others in the Pentagon disagreed. At least one Muslim analyst in the building had been greatly offended; others privately worried that if these covers were leaked during a war conducted in an Islamic nation, the fallout -- as one Pentagon staffer would later say -- "would be as bad as Abu Ghraib." (...)

Specter Embraces Pipes Islamophobia

Umm...Even real liberals can be Islamophobes, and in fact many are. Uncritical rights talk frames Islam as the enemy. When you are a politically convenient liberal, right-wing and liberal fears collapse into one great, big black hole of Specter.

Matt Duss notes a Washington Independent report that Arlen Specter will deliver the opening address to a right-wing anti-Muslim conference hosted by Daniel Pipes Middle East Forum:

A coalition of conservative legal groups will host a “Libel Lawfare: Silencing Criticism of Radical Islam,” a conference on how “Islamist lawfare” is imperiling free speech in America. Confirmed speakers include neoconservative foreign policy guru Frank Gaffney, lawyer Andrew C. McCarthy (who turned down an invitation to a White House counterterrorism conference to protest administration policy), Islam critic David Pipes, and… Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), who will give the opening speech.

Not to mention Big Al Dershowitz, king of Islamophobes, who’ll be there in all his glory. What in God’s name is Specter, a newly minted Democrat, doing in such wingnutty company?

[From Specter Embraces Pipes Islamophobia]

Good Question

Sadism?

If we need torture to keep the country safe, why did Bush and Cheney stop doing it in early 2004?

[From Good Question]

Australian Press Releases Abu Ghraib Photos

They are out.

For those with strong stomachs, more Abu Ghraib torture photos may be seen here.

…

The Australian press got hold of 60 of these some time ago and is now releasing them. Presumably they are among the photos, the release of which President Obama is now attempting to block.

[From Australian Press Releases Abu Ghraib Photos]

Following the Logic

JMM at TPM:

If we need to keep evidence of torture, like photographs, secret, to protect our troops, doesn't that suggest that torture isn't a great way to keep them or us safe?

[From Following the Logic]

Mainstream Baptists slaps away an Islamophobe

After the arrogant and contemptuous way Mohler and other fundamentalist takeover leaders treated the Mainstream and moderate Baptists in their own denomination, I have exceedingly low expectations for civility from any of them. But, lives are at stake in the Middle East and around the world when people like Mohler persist in fomenting a clash of civilizations.

…

Frankly, in my experience, I find Muslims more respectful of Christianity than I find Evangelical Christians respectful of Islam.

More at Mohler Contemptuous of Islam

Torture: America v. America

Mona tells an Egyptian view of American torture:

I think of that hooded demonstrator in the orange jumpsuit often. The occupant of the White House might have changed but America still hasn’t had the necessary conversation about torture that he insisted on starting. Instead, it avoids engaging and prefers to walk away like the girl’s chaperone.

The continuing love affair with President Barack Obama must not blindfold America to the reckoning it must have. Which is why I hope that hooded demonstrator is still there outside the White House with his board saying “End Torture Now.”

Only now, with a new line: “And prosecute the torturers.”

Torture is Terror

The passage below is a problem I have been struggling to articulate. From Aziz:

What is needed is a generalized principle under which both opposition to terrorism and opposition to torture can be articulated. From a religious perspective, muslims have been arguing (usually defensively) that terrorism (ie, hirabah) goes against Islamic teachings for quite some time - see my own ongoing articles on hirabah here on beliefnet and my earlier hirabah posts. Recently, several muslim organizations issued a joint statement against torture (to which I also signed). Many of the same religious arguments that are made can be applied equally to both concepts, but are being used on a case-basis rather than as one general philosophy. How do we integrate these moral arguments into one cohesive framework?