Read on Twitter
Because people have been asking (and having nice dm convos), I'll elaborate.
...a thread on casual Islamophobia and racism in the academy..
This is in part about a book by an academic which has garnered significant positive press in academic and nonacademic spheres. https://twitter.com/namansour26/status/1349424543836868608
...a thread on casual Islamophobia and racism in the academy..
This is in part about a book by an academic which has garnered significant positive press in academic and nonacademic spheres. https://twitter.com/namansour26/status/1349424543836868608
This book has significant problems with one of its framing devices and what kills me is that it causes harm to another community using my own community. The individual who wrote it belongs to neither.
Several sensitivity readers could have fixed this. The book would be different but would not use our art to inflict harm upon a sister community.
I won't speak much of it further (unless we're close and have inside jokes I'm not responding to dms on this) but I'll say this...it's an issue of embodiment.
The other incident was a game that simulates Ottoman Hajj.
First off, there's the option to play the game as a 'slave'. I cannot begin to understand what others might feel when they see this. I know I feel concerned and sad. Worried.
First off, there's the option to play the game as a 'slave'. I cannot begin to understand what others might feel when they see this. I know I feel concerned and sad. Worried.
I don't know if it's my place to speak to that pain. I also don't think it's for the descendants of enslaved peoples to have to explain every day why it hurts.
Second off, hajj is a pillar of faith. It begins the moment you walk out the door. It's not something I feel comfortable having other people simulate. It's not comparable to catholic pilgrimage (there are some parallels; I've had this conversation yearly since I was a girl)
I also, thanks to the brilliant paradisic @DrDzenitaKaric, see many studies of Muslim ritual assuming it is controlled by the forces of empire and power.
But where is belief? And faith?
..are Muslims shariatic robots?
But where is belief? And faith?
..are Muslims shariatic robots?
Where is accounting for the fact that many of us draw on these intellectual histories for our own practice?
This isn't an intellectual exercise for us. It's real life. It's God.
This isn't an intellectual exercise for us. It's real life. It's God.
You can say 'God' in academia. It'll be ok, I promise.
Belief can be beautiful.
Belief can be beautiful.
I have to deal with these assumptions that 'expertise' is equivalent to empathy every day. It's why casual Islamophobia and racism are so rampant in academia. I understand that part of the time its my responsibility to write that email explaining why something is problematic.
We are a living community that is marginalized in many ways. We deserve to be consulted, have our diversities considered, and have that documented.
But I'm also tired of having to educate people on how not to hurt other people.
And I know other communities, like the Black Muslim community, experience this to an even greater degree. I know they get ignored and belittled by everyone. All my duaa to them.
And I know other communities, like the Black Muslim community, experience this to an even greater degree. I know they get ignored and belittled by everyone. All my duaa to them.
I feel that sometimes...my duty is to try to get my own communities to listen to the Black Muslim community and to educate themselves. I can do that. ..but explaining my own pain and discomfort to people who I don't love...that is not my responsibility.
Especially when this happens every day.
I just feel like... Muslims and peoples of that place I grew up (I didn't grow up in the US)...we don't matter. After all of this time, we don't. I get to be angry and tired. I get to when I spend so much time being patient.
I don't really want to engage people in conversation about it. Why waste that energy when every time I try to explain to people why something is problematic I get gaslit and told that something is better than nothing?
I can go spend that time with the people I love and talking to my community about their intolerances. And figuring out how to be a better member of those communities.
We have many problems to fix. Muslim communities, especially in the west, need to reckon with slavery. Stop explaining it away without acknowledging the pain of enslaved peoples. My beloved home community needs to reckon with antiblackness and colorism
I spend most of my time with my non-Muslim family being patient with the casual Islamophobia and the racism. I can do that. I can be patient.
I can listen to my friends be hurt.
I won't be patient with PhDs when the vast majority of academia belittles people like me.
I can listen to my friends be hurt.
I won't be patient with PhDs when the vast majority of academia belittles people like me.
I try to employ the notion of حسن الظن. But...as I've been told my religious authorities, this applies to people. People can have good intentions. Products can be criticized. And punching down is an issue.
One more note. Referring to my original tweet...when praise is lavished on something by those outside our communities, it is US who look bad when we extend critique. We look like the naysayers and the negative peeps. This happens daily.
