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Who ISIS Hates

Posted October 15th, 2014 by Lesley Hazleton

I know Muslims are sick and tired of the Islamophobic refrain of “Why don’t they speak out against ISIS?”  Some refuse to accept the terms of the challenge, seeing it as a demand that they apologize for being Muslim.  Others denounce terrorism, to deaf ears.  But it wasn’t until I read this piece by New Zealanders Khareyah Wahaab and Jason Kennedy, who made news a couple of years back by inviting a racist MP to dinner, that I realized how Muslims in the West are doubly threatened by extremism.

[Tim from Timaru, by the way, is the New Zealand equivalent of Joe Bloggs — or perhaps Joe the Plumber.  And it should be noted that before ISIS took to beheading Western hostages, they beheaded dozens of Syrians in Raqqa. They stuck the heads on the points of railings in the city’s main park. Western media paid no attention.]

This may come as a shock to some, but ISIS hates us, a young Muslim couple in the West, with the same vehemence as Tim from Timaru.  Except, unlike Tim, we have many ties to the Muslim community in New Zealand.  It’s a small community and our family is known to most Muslims here, who in turn still have ties to their countries of origin.  This means that if by some freak chance a terrorist group were to put a bounty on our heads for speaking out against them, they have a much greater chance of finding us than finding Tim from Tumaru.

More than anyone else, terror groups seek to punish those they view as apostates of their own religion.  Radical fundamentalists thus hold all Muslims hostage.  Even in New Zealand, where our freedoms of speech and religion are a given, we still live with the risk of terrorist reprisal for speaking out, precisely because we are Muslim.

Terrorism is not aimed only at Westerners;  it’s a daily experience for those who must live among extremists.  Muslims have immigrated to the West in a conscious decision to escape violence and instability, seeking to build a better life, but many fear that if they speak out loud, they and their families “back home” will suffer.  You may call this cowardly, but first ask yourself if you would be willing to jeopardize your family’s freedom and safety if you legitimately feared reprisal.

Many do so nonetheless.  In public gatherings, demonstrations, formal statements by imams, even teenagers posting their frustrations on YouTube, the message is the same:  “ISIS does not represent us.  ISIS does not represent Islam.  We condemn their actions entirely.”  You don’t hear them because they’re not considered newsworthy, but engage a Muslim in conversation, and you are very apt to find someone who feels exactly the same way about extremists as you do.

How can we, two Kiwis who have never had anything to do with the Middle East, possibly answer for the actions of extremists with whom we have nothing in common other than proclaiming to be Muslim?  Like every other Muslim we know, we choose to follow the progressive, peaceful tenets of Islam, and leave the rest to the annals of a long and tumultuous history.

With biblical literalism still prevalent in many churches, it should be no surprise that Islam also struggles with literalism.  Most Muslims in the West gloss over the violent passages in the Quran in much the same way as Christians disregard the violent passages in the Bible.  Whether consciously or unconsciously, they recognize the need for reform.  But Martin Luther’s reform of Christianity didn’t come until the sixteenth century.  Islam, a faith 600 years younger, is now, in the twenty-first century, grappling with the same need.  Progressive western Muslims will certainly lead the way.

And if you haven’t managed to hear it by now, then hear it this time:  Yes, we are Muslim, and yes, we categorically denounce ISIS and all forms of terror.

 

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File under: fundamentalism, Islam | Tagged: Tags: ISIS, Islamophobia, Jason Kennedy, Khayreyah Wahaab, New Zealand, reprisal, terrorism | 5 Comments
  1. Omer says:
    October 18, 2014 at 11:51 am

    Thanks much for posting Leslie. I just heard Malik Mujahid, a civic leader in Chicago respond to an interview that condemning groups like ISIS has almost become a 6th pillar of Islam which condemnations required 5 x a day. I found that funny but sad.

    Regarding the issue of reform, I think the main issue that traditional Muslims need to confront is that much of the problem is of shackling the Qur’an to the hadith literature. The Prophet never authorized anyone to collect and compile alleged sayings of his and especially not to do so 100 years or more after his death.

    So interpreting the Qur’an through medieval lens is problematic because it institutionalizes a medieval mindset. I am not saying that medieval thought is necessarily bad….but it is not necessarily good either and it is not necessarily really from the Prophet either…at least much of what is said to be from him is likely not from him but from what people thought he would have said or what they mistakened him as saying.

    I think once that lightbulb resonates throughout the Muslim world, then that would be a huge blow to traditional and most especially a huge blow to salafi muslims and catastrophic to extremist muslims.

    I am not against hadith…i believe an indispensible source for interpretation of the Qur’an should be sought in looking at the hadith deemed authentic because some of it is authentic but not to replace reason and not to override the Qur’an as is done much too much by some muslims.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      October 18, 2014 at 2:02 pm

      Love the mordant humor of condemnation of ISIS as the sixth pillar of Islam! Similar vein to the #MuslimApologies meme on Twitter.
      Re hadith, I know I’ve recommended Sadakat Kadri’s ‘Heaven on Earth’ before, but can’t do so too often (the title makes it sound like devotional pap, but would I be recommending it if it were?). Especially the section on Salafism and the reinterpretation of tradition:
      http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Earth-Journey-Through-Sharia-ebook/dp/B005XMKAGY/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413665807&sr=1-5&keywords=heaven+on+earth

  2. jveeds says:
    October 19, 2014 at 10:51 am

    I liked the insightful comment about unshackling the Qur’an from the hadith — not that I get a say in it, but a minute after reading that it dawned on me that that could be an excellent thing. I’m of mixed minds about it, because a religion’s interpretive literature helps it grow and adjust to later time epochs. Yet, no matter how the hadith is divvied up among greater-to-lesser credibility, the sayings and actions of people as recollected later are notoriously unreliable and must certainly lead to misguided practices which become enshrined and immutable.

  3. SamAh says:
    October 22, 2014 at 4:43 am

    I love your articles! Absolutely admire the way you represent your thoughts.
    But I cannot help myself but to add the following: We Muslims in the Middle East are trying to progress and reform Islam. We condemn ISIS, and we want peace in the region, we want peace and love between the east and west.
    Much respect to the kiwis writers and to you.
    Cannot wait until your next article!

  4. Sam says:
    March 19, 2015 at 4:10 am

    Isis greatest enemy is Islam’s Sufism – “the love within Islam” all Muslims have to do to combatt and destroy ISIS …is bring back Sufism(love) as was expounded by one of the greatest personalities/poet – Rumi.
    Love all,Malice unto none

“I Had No Idea…”

Posted May 20th, 2014 by Lesley Hazleton

macklemore2There’s a back story to this post.  I was asked to write it yesterday by Seattle’s alternative paper The Stranger.  Specifically, they asked for some “historical perspective” to singer Macklemore’s perverse twist on wardrobe malfunction onstage last Friday night, when he decided it’d be cool to perform in what’s sold in variety stores as a “Sheik/Fagin mask,” huge hook nose and all.

When the shit hit the fan, the Seattle-born Macklemore said his get-up was merely a “witch mask” and there was nothing anti-Semitic about it.  This morning, Tuesday, he finally issued an apology: “I had no idea,” he said.  And later this morning, despite huge numbers of comments on its coverage, The Stranger decided that “this story is over.”

I disagree, so am posting what I wrote right here:

———

For years I thought of myself as a wandering Jew. I moved not just between cities but between continents — London to Jerusalem to New York to Seattle. It was as though I fit the stereotype of the “rootless cosmopolitan.” Yet while I now seem to have become rooted after all, or at least as rooted as anyone whose houseboat floats on forty feet of water can be, I still can’t help thinking of rootless cosmopolitanism – anti-Semitic code for shiftless, untrustworthy, disloyal Jewishness — as a rather attractive existential state of being. And I still romanticize the idea of the wandering Jew, even though I know it began as an anti-Semitic legend in Christian Rome.

The story goes that a Jewish cobbler wouldn’t allow Christ to rest on his stoop during the trek to Golgotha, for which Christ condemned him to wander the world for eternity, with no rest. The Crusaders brought the legend back to England in the 12th century, where it was embroidered and expanded, and where this particular wandering Jew was born several centuries later. I’d be the only Jew in a Catholic convent school whose nuns referred to me as “the Hebrew girl” — with a certain pause before the word Hebrew, as though to emphasize that they were using a delicate euphemism. At least they refrained from telling me that I’d killed Christ (or given him no rest). Instead, they told me I was going to limbo, which seemed to be a kind of mezzanine between heaven and hell. To their horror, I kind of liked the idea of limbo.

This was only a few years after the end of World War Two. No, I’m not going to bring the six million in here; I have no desire to contribute to the obscenity of invoking their memory in support of current argument. My point is that despite its anti-Nazi stance, England was still deeply anti-Semitic. Which is not surprising given that it was where the “blood libel” first burst into murderous flame.

The blood libel was a medieval urban legend about Jews ritually slaughtering Christian boys and draining their blood to mix into Passover matzos (I kid you not). It spread like wildfire. Thousands of Jews were burned alive and otherwise massacred (and several boys declared saints) until Jews were expelled completely from British shores in 1290, to be allowed back only in 1655. In the light of which, Queen Isabella of Spain’s much better-known expulsion of Spain’s Jews in 1492, followed by that of all Spain’s Muslims thirty years later, seems pretty par for the course.

The two most infamous Jews in all of literature were created by Englishmen strong and true: Shylock in the 16th century and Fagin in the 19th. Both were portrayed as hunch-backed, lecherous-lipped, greedy-eyed, and of course, flamboyantly hook-nosed (a word that is inherently prejudicial — in Arab countries, it’s known as an eagle’s nose, and has traditionally been considered a sign of nobility). But neither Fagin nor Shylock were new creations. They were personifications of cartoon stereotypes that had become widespread with printing. The Nazi tabloid Der Stürmer didn’t invent the style, but it did help propagate it so widely that it still features on hysterically anti-Semitic websites from the USA to Poland to Yemen. It appeared in Egyptian schoolbooks and newspapers for years. And it turned up with an ironic twist in Denmark in 2006 with the publication of cartoons caricaturing Muhammad and all Muslims as terrorists, all with the “Sheik/Fagin nose” sold so amusingly as a mask at party stores. One Semite apparently looks pretty much like another.

Mild-mannered Seattle might seem a sweet respite from all this. Yet it was in Seattle that I first heard someone say “he Jewed me down” — quite blithely, with no self-consciousness, as though it were perfectly normal. Here that someone tried to make me her token Jew (“Wow, I’ve never had a Jewish friend before,” she said, and she didn’t after either). Here that a former Catholic schoolboy who didn’t realize I was Jewish (“that’s Jewish, you don’t look funny” went the old music-hall joke) assumed that I’d join him in changing the words of the carol “Joy to the world” to “Fuck all the Jews.” Here that I get a finger-pointing “you people” or “you Jews” as I’m held responsible for the actions of an Israeli government I criticize far more bitterly than those to whom the accusatory fingers belong. And it’s here, in the comments on The Stranger’s coverage of the Macklemore affair, that I find all the usual anti-Semitic code words: “touchy,” “thin-skinned,” and that old standby “pushy.”

Seattle is a young city, almost an ahistorical one compared to Jerusalem, and this ahistorical sense has allowed me to find calm writerly perspective on what happened halfway round the world in the Middle East of fifteen hundred, two thousand, even three thousand years ago. I’m immensely grateful for that. But could an absence of historical awareness just be another way of saying innocence? Or should that be ignorance?

When the subject of literary fraud came up in conversation not long ago, for instance, I mentioned the most infamous example of all – “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” And was stunned to realize that nobody had heard of this screed, which first surfaced in Russia in 1903. Purportedly the record of a meeting of leading Jews plotting to take over the world, it’s a classic demonstration of the ornate convolutions performed by the paranoid-conspiratorial mind, and has thus proved remarkably resilient to all evidence that it’s a fiction. Hitler made much use of it, of course, and America’s own tainted automotive titan Henry Ford had half a million copies printed and distributed in the 1920s. You can still find the full text on anti-Semitic websites, while print versions, complete with the usual hook-nosed illustrations, continue to sell steadily in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

macklemorePerhaps Seattle is a bit less innocent after Macklemore’s now infamous twist on the idea of wardrobe malfunction. Or perhaps not. I opt to believe him when he says that he had no idea of the anti-Semitic stereotype, and can understand his initial defensiveness — nobody likes to have their unconscious biases paraded in public. But as he now acknowledges, it’s precisely this no-idea-ness that’s the problem. And that may be true for Seattle as well as for him.

We pride ourselves here on being progressive and tolerant. That’s part of our civic image. But tolerance is an ambiguous ideal. You only need to tolerate what – or whom — you don’t really accept. Stereotypes are inherent in the idea of tolerance, and until we can get beyond them, our proud progressiveness runs the risk of being… well,  just another mask.

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File under: Christianity, Judaism, ugliness | Tagged: Tags: "rootless cosmopolitan", "wandering Jew", anti-Semitism, Fagin, ignorance, innocence, Islamophobia, Macklemore, Seattle, Shylock, The Stranger | 45 Comments
  1. Mary Scriver says:
    May 20, 2014 at 6:13 pm

    Ask your nice Seattle liberals how they feel about Native Americans. Better yet, watch them walk down the sidewalk past a few guys with brown paper bags, having a great time.

    Prairie Mary

  2. candacedavis2013 says:
    May 20, 2014 at 7:10 pm

    Oh dear, the constant human need to define ourselves against some “other” that we feel free to denigrate and project on doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Thank you Lesley for calling us on it.
    How disappointing a species we are sometimes. Gratitudes, ace

  3. shuaib says:
    May 20, 2014 at 8:57 pm

    its a great article based on facts ,its also a fact that western civilization couldn’t have been possible without contribution the Muslims n Jews

  4. Ross says:
    May 20, 2014 at 11:25 pm

    Perhaps, as you refer to the Blood Libel in England, you are aware of this historical document. preserved in the Child Ballads? FYI anyway:
    http://www.contemplator.com/child/sirhugh.html

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      May 21, 2014 at 8:10 am

      Hadn’t seen this one before. Thanks (I think!). The one I remember because it’s wicked short is this, from about the same time: “Repent, repent, oh England / Repent while thou hast space / And do not like the wicked Jews / Deny God’s proffered grace.”

  5. fatmakalkan says:
    May 21, 2014 at 7:39 am

    Wow Lesley! Growing up at Izmir, Turkey with Jewish neighbors I never heard of this stories. There was a mutual respect one another and I never heard any belittling remarks or this kind of stereotyping. My parents let me visit Jewish neighbors by myself during my childhood because they did not have children and they adored me. Every morning they greet each other from windows or at the entrance of our apartment. Jews lived in my city or country as a respected citizens. We never mix the two. Israilie governments wrong actions towards Palestenians and our Jewish citizens .

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      May 21, 2014 at 8:15 am

      Thanks, Fatma — I appreciate the positive counter-balance.

  6. pah says:
    May 21, 2014 at 1:33 pm

    whew! Leslie…i mean this could take days and months to discuss.
    i am just re-reading “Ivanhoe” and surely Sir Walter Scott also stereotyped Jews….The truth is, as Humans, we don;t seem to move on….in fact, in may ways, we are becoming more “medieval.”
    But, on the up side, Leslie, glad to see you back in the fray. take care

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      May 21, 2014 at 2:53 pm

      You’re right: there’d be hardly any English lit left if were to judge by anti-Semitism alone. I choose to still adore T.S.Eliot, for instance, despite lines like “The Jew squats on the windowsill / The rats are underneath the piles” (Gerontion). Sigh.

      • sweetk8 says:
        May 21, 2014 at 10:40 pm

        When I suggested to my English Lit professor that T.S. Elliot was anti-Semitic, she looked at me aghast, saying it wasn’t possible! She said no one had ever broached this idea to her… I could read his works then and find instances, why was I able to, and not her or anyone else?
        I enjoyed your article and hope it brings awareness to the countless who remain in the dark about racial, ethnic and religious bias.

  7. anolivedaily says:
    May 21, 2014 at 2:18 pm

    I feel a little torn reading this. First, I think you did an amazing job of explaining the history behind this whole ordeal. I think anyone, Macklemore included, would see how offensive the costume is after reading this. But I also think to myself, do I know any better? I didn’t know most of what you wrote about. It may seem crazy, but the reality is our schools teach us white American history. Every different nationality and race are left out of the text books, or only mentioned in relation to a white American topic. It really is a shame. There should be no way a person can get into their 20s and 30s and still be ignorant about these things, but what if they are never taught?

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      May 21, 2014 at 2:45 pm

      Excellent point about the mono-cultural focus of American education (which also accounts for American helplessness with world geography). There’s a parochialism behind all this that I find very disturbing.
      I guess my point with the brief historical tour was that I fell in love with the ideas of the wandering Jew and the rootless cosmopolitan before I knew their origins in anti-Semitism — i.e. biased ideas work their into our minds without us knowing it, let alone why. I should have made that clear. But I’m sure you recognized that “Sheik/Fagin” mask nevertheless for what it was.

  8. A.J. Valliant says:
    May 21, 2014 at 7:28 pm

    The man at one point had a debilitating cough syrup addiction and saw no issue with a straight white dude being the spokesman for the LGBT community’s relationship to hip-hop.

    “Sorry, I’m more than a little slow” is a shockingly plausible defense in his case.

  9. brinkling says:
    May 21, 2014 at 8:39 pm

    Great post!! I wasn’t aware of all the history.

    It’s sad that there’s still so much ignorance and prejudice in the world.

  10. simaroseblossom says:
    May 21, 2014 at 9:21 pm

    I definitely related to a lot of what you said. I feel like Macklemore had to have known and just wanted attention. It’s so insensitive t a people that have always been put on trial.

    • M2M says:
      May 22, 2014 at 1:48 am

      Like others I had no idea about the depth and history of these feelings. I remember asking what anti-semitism actually meant after Mel Gibson made the news – or rather where it came from. – as I struggle to comprehend that people can seem to decide to hate on an entire human ‘group’ without cause. So it seems to be a believing in old/urban stories and legends? Really? Incredible. How are practical men like Henry Ford or educated men like TS Elliot able to be drawn in by this nonsense? On the other hand I have been stabbed, axed, beaten and singled out for prejudice by members of my ‘own kind’ thanks to nothing more than an accent. So I do get it. People can be shallow, arrogant, ignorant…innocent?
      Great post, thanks.
      Al

  11. shek1na says:
    May 21, 2014 at 9:46 pm

    Much of the Jew hatred today comes from Islam and the Quran, but it is not the whole picture. We must admit that much hatred throughout history have come from the so-called Christians, the Catholic Church and the Lutherans. It is unfortunately the truth.

    (Let me remind you all of Pope Urban II’s speech when he started the very first crusade. All Jews they found on the way to Jerusalem to be killed without mercy).

    Where did the Nazis come from? Only one crazy man? If you investigate you will find that many SS officers had backgrounds in Catholicism […]

    But after the Holocaust the attitude of the Jews improved a lot. I hope it lasts. If you read the Bible, you will understand that Salvation comes from the Jews. No man took the life of Jesus, He gave it as a sacrifice for ALL sin.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      May 22, 2014 at 9:42 am

      On the other hand (and there are many hands here), this from the Quran (Sura 2, verse 62): “Surely they that believe, and those that follow the Jewish scriptures, and Christians, and Sabians — all who believe in God and the Day of Judgment, and do right — shall have their reward with their Lord. No fear shall be on them; neither shall they sorrow.”
      Plus of course the justly famous “To you your religion, to me mine.”

  12. Dani says:
    May 21, 2014 at 10:26 pm

    Brilliantly written.

    Thank you.

  13. rjjainrahul97 says:
    May 22, 2014 at 12:38 am

    I respect your relatively unbiased opinion and the fact that you respected Macklemore’s apologies and were open to the fact that people can make mistakes.

    Since my knowledge on the topic is nearly non-existent i will refrain from diving into the heart of the issue but I think we can say that there are a lot of things in the world and it is hard to keep track of all the symbolism. Also given what a commenter above (or is that below) said regarding the mono-cultural focus I guess we should consider giving a public apology by these stars as genuine for if nothing else, the relatively obscure topic became that little bit less obscure and may help in raising the issue and awareness hopefully in the right manner.

  14. awax1217 says:
    May 22, 2014 at 6:03 am

    I am a Jew. I married a Jew and had three Jewish children. I try hard not to be offended but it seems there something offensive in his actions. I believe people should think first and then no apology is needed.

  15. amelie88 says:
    May 22, 2014 at 10:23 am

    I’m from the suburbs of NYC so we have plenty of Jews here. But even as someone who grew up surrounded by Jews, I didn’t see the costume as anti-Semitic at first. I was just confused as to why Macklemore decided to wear a really ugly mask since it wasn’t Halloween. After seeing the reaction, I see it now in context and I understand. Though I probably would not have made the connection had a Jew not pointed it out to me. Like a commenter posted above, it is difficult to know what symbol may be offensive to others. It all depends on your personal experiences.

    I remember being very surprised when I first went to Spain to see that during Holy Week, all the men carrying the religious floats were decked out in what looked like the Ku Klux Klan uniform. As it turns out, the KKK appropriated that costume for their cause and it became a negative symbol here in the US. However in Spain they’ve been using that uniform for hundreds of years during their processions and it carries no negative association and is part of Catholic tradition. It’s still jarring for me to see, but the symbolism doesn’t have KKK connotation over there. Not sure if it’s in the same vein as Macklemore’s situation since he has lived in the US his whole life and should be more aware of these things. But it’s just a thought.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      May 22, 2014 at 11:02 am

      Thanks, Amelie — that’s an excellent and (in this context) wonderfully ironic example of the need for awareness not only of cultural context, but also of its history.

  16. SISI DA FIZ says:
    May 22, 2014 at 12:51 pm

    ROTFL

  17. Roxy Hathaway says:
    May 22, 2014 at 2:13 pm

    In this case ignorance is not bliss. He went down several notches in my esteem.

  18. Harry Underwood says:
    May 22, 2014 at 2:38 pm

    Reblogged this on World of Values and commented:
    A good post regarding Macklemore’s jarring appearance in a “Jewish costume”, and why the costume has a long and highly-bigoted history in Abrahamic religion. On point:

  19. Relatable XO says:
    May 23, 2014 at 1:20 am

    I enjoyed reading your post. You have great opinions and I agree Macklemore’s costume was a bit absurd, no matter what his goal or angle was. I think your opinion is a BIT broad, saying that Seattle is innocent/ignorant because of the people you have met. Well, I’m from Germany and people know that, and I have not once been called a Nazi whereas when I have travelled other places people aren’t afraid to make that “joke.” It depends who you surround yourself with. You will find innocent/ignorant people everywhere! Don’t let them get to you. They’re uneducated and have nothing better to do.

    Thanks for posting!

  20. Ethen Hunt says:
    May 23, 2014 at 1:43 am

    I spent last 2 hours reading your articles ! And must say: awseome website ! !

  21. Swiss-Ami-Mom says:
    May 23, 2014 at 4:08 am

    That he has has been known to dress in costume, and hang outside the venues with his fans in costume, I can honestly believe his intent was none other than what he stated. As a Jewish person myself AND a as a person that respects Macklemores work, I think this has been hyped out of control. If you listen to his music, his words of support for various walks of life, you would be gretting him with an apology. This is anti-semetic paranoia.

  22. syrbal-labrys says:
    May 23, 2014 at 1:03 pm

    I was horrified to recently read that the majority of younger Americans do not even know what “the Holocaust” means as a phrase. Shocking lack of history teaching…

  23. christiancontrarian says:
    May 24, 2014 at 6:30 pm

    A White guy who sings in a traditionally African-American style dressed as a Jewish man. Confused much?

  24. murphyji says:
    May 26, 2014 at 8:26 am

    Marginalising people for their religion, nationality, or cultural background is what sells copy, gets people elected and starts wars. In Britain a right wing political party is causing a feeding frenzy on immigration. This is no new event. History is full of examples of pea brained thinkers who have caused untold misery and death. Current world events, which I don’t need to list, focus on difference rather than similarity and look where that has led. So be grateful for dialogue giving the culprit an opportunity to review their act or statement which has caused offence, rather than filling the coffers of arms manufacturers and dealers.

  25. Author Catherine Townsend-Lyon says:
    May 26, 2014 at 9:19 am

    Great Post, but lets keep ‘It Real” as we all know when a band hits the stage? No matter what they are wearing, dressed up in, or masks or not, it’s “Entertainment” not downing on some group of people…..

    No matter what Macklemore does in a their show, lets remember, It’s A Show, not to be taken seriously. Give them break already. Their messages in their Music is really the point…… I still, and always will LUV them!

    Author, Catherine Lyon 🙂

  26. cerabellum says:
    May 29, 2014 at 11:04 am

    Interesting. As a British male 20yo I grew up with a lot of the anti-semitic nonsense without really associating it with Jewish people. I didn’t know any Jewish people but if I did, they would have just been normal friends. As I got older though I still laughed at Jewish jokes about money or whatnot. Just as I laughed at a tonne of un-pc jokes relating to race, gender, religion.

    The side of me which studies this knows the world would be a whole lot better if Israel had more power. That the Jewish population was 500 million rather than what… 40? but then, this kind of silly costume is what I would laugh at… Ok not in this context, maybe on Family guy but… It doesn’t change the fact I support Jewish people far more than Christians and FAR more than Muslims.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      May 29, 2014 at 1:36 pm

      But hey, Cerabellum, why would you “support” any one religious group as a whole, whether Jews, Christians, or Muslims? Maybe think about it a moment, and then ask if this isn’t another form of stereotyping…
      Plus you seem to have fallen into the trap of confusing Israel with Judaism. The Israeli government may present itself as representing all Jews, but I’m damned if it represents me, or the majority of Jews I know, or even half of Israeli Jews.

      • cerabellum says:
        May 29, 2014 at 2:30 pm

        Yes I do hear that as a consensus among Jewish people who don’t live in Israel. I am not a religious man so I don’t prefer religions based solely on their teachings. I prefer them on how they are implemented in communities – a function of social evolution.

        Christians a few hundred years ago were the epitome of regression and savagery. Now they just have a few pockets of extremists, all bark and no bite. Islam to this day envelops a country in darkness. I haven’t found a majority Muslim country so far which doesn’t implement some part of Sharia.

        This isn’t just about censoring opinions. It is about all kinds of horrible issues. Some extremely similar to Christianity a few hundred years ago, others a whole new species of evil. Marrying children, raping wives – treating women like property. Murdering minorities; gay people, atheists, bloggers and activists. murdering apostates despite their heritage being christian – it’s all about the men…

        Who knows whether Islam will evolve to the extent Christianity has – I hope it does. But I sympathize greatly with Israel. By all accounts not the most rational, morally sounds country in the world but… To be surrounded with such hatred, often directed at exterminating Jews as well… I could never understand that feeling.

        I guess Jewish people have just been the most innocuous, placid religious influence on my life. I like it that way 🙂

        • Lesley Hazleton says:
          May 29, 2014 at 6:37 pm

          “Innocuous and placid”? — I wish! But…
          Sometimes I fear Israel is well on the way to becoming a kind of Jewish Saudi Arabia, with fanatic believers dictating a distorted hypernationalist “death-to-Arabs” form of extreme Judaism. No religion has a monopoly on either “truth” or ugliness.
          And another “but”:
          Sharia is not the monolithically repressive system you seem to think it is. As Boyd Tomkin wrote in The Independent re Sadakat Kadri’s wonderful history of sharia, ‘Heaven on Earth’ (an ironic title, of course), “the kinds of sharia now trumpeted by theocrats and militants always owe more to human arrogance than to divine inspiration.”
          The problem here is the confusion of militant extremist forms of a religion with the whole of that religion, whatever religion we may be talking about.

          • cerabellum says:
            May 30, 2014 at 3:44 am

            That is interesting – I don’t know much about Israel to be honest save a couple of documentaries. It would be mortifying if Israel took such a path but given Jewish history, I guess anything’s possible…

            As for Islam, divine inspiration can only get you so far, I agree. Although I have read the Koran and it is a shocking book. Of course a lot of it is just repetition and the divinity of Allah but… There are teachings in there that frankly are pure evil. Now this isn’t to say the old testament – even to some extent the new – doesn’t have shocking things in it.

            But it certainly plays out differently in today’s world and that is, as a non religious person, what i am interested in. What I see is that nearly all Islamic majority country has psychological and physical abuse of women built into society. That an influx of immigrant from places like Saudi and Pakistan into Sweden has directly resulted in Sweden now having the second highest rape per ca-pita in the world. Highest in Europe.

            I have the same view as you on Israel turning into some rabid, foaming mouthed anti all Muslim country but… Given all the surrounding caliphates have a similar stance toward them, I don’t think I would see things any better or act better.

          • Lesley Hazleton says:
            May 30, 2014 at 8:08 am

            “Surrounding caliphates”? “A couple of documentaries”? Cerabellum, I think it’s time to do some serious reading so that you can avoid coming to weird, uninformed, and unwarranted conclusions. You might start with actually reading the Bible, since the Quran is a pussycat by comparison. And by looking at exactly where that Swedish-rape statistic comes from, since it sounds like racist urban legend to me.

      • anonyme13 says:
        June 8, 2014 at 1:20 pm

        I am sorry Lesley, but you are wrong! Now when somebody attack Israel, it is a disguised anti-Semitism, flat out. Some people are so ignorant about Israel, but they love to feel sorry for Palestinians. They have no idea that “Palestine” and “palestinian” the words are a modern invention, that jews bought the land in Israel with hard money, and that the Arab Lands are huge and Israel is the tiniest country possible. That sixty years later, the so called palestinians, for political reasons, still leave in refugee camps. How about all the refugees from Arab countries, were are they, my family included(from algeria, out of Spain from the time of Isabella)? I will tell you why you can’t find any jewish refugees, because they started to rebuilt their lives as soon as they were expelled!

        • Lesley Hazleton says:
          June 8, 2014 at 5:19 pm

          It takes some chutzpah to talk about ignorance so ignorantly!
          Palestine is a very ancient name, used by the Greeks, the Romans, and the Byzantines. Though you are right that Palestinians still live in the refugee camps for political reasons — because Israel has confiscated their land.

  27. venuscallipyge says:
    May 30, 2014 at 6:47 pm

    Fellow Seattleite here. I’ve noticed Seattle’s subtle racism on many occasions, first when I was living in the CD and being told several times I would get raped or stabbed for being “white” if I walked home alone often like I did, later I saw the disproportionate treatment by police toward those of color on the street when I was caught up in my active drug addiction. I’ve been told that Seattle police are more racist than those in many other urban centers, and I believe it. If the general population here were less prejudiced, the behavior of our police force would not be countenanced like it is now and in the past. I am aware that I am privileged because I look white, and I don’t take that for granted… I do my best to counter the unjust discrimination I see around me, whether for a person’s color, age, sexual identity, creed, religion, and so on. Thank you for your thoughtful post.

  28. epicrevieweradmin says:
    June 3, 2014 at 1:28 am

    Let me think about this, a white guy who does rap and is looking like a jewish guy……………………..

  29. terzahcain says:
    June 5, 2014 at 11:24 pm

    I have entirely too much to say in response to this wonderful article and all the thoughtful comments. May I post a pingback link to your article in an upcoming post on my site?

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      June 6, 2014 at 8:52 am

      Sure — it’s public domain. — L. (Just remember to link and/or attribute.)

“Why would you write a book?”

Posted August 2nd, 2013 by Lesley Hazleton

“You’re a Muslim, so why would you write a book about the founder of Christianity?”

That’s how Fox News’ Lauren Green began her challenge to Reza Aslan’s right to write about Jesus.  The video of her interview with him instantly went viral (in fact, several accidental theologists sent it on to me — thank you!).  It inspired several spoofs, including this one here.  Aslan’s book, Zealot (my San Francisco Chronicle review of it here) was already #2 on the Amazon bestseller list;  by the next morning, it was #1.

“Gotcha, J. K. Rowling!” Aslan responded.

But aside from the small detail that Christianity was founded by Paul, not Jesus, Green’s question may not be such a terrible one after all.

'Zealot'The First Muslim - CoverI’ve been there, and often still am — from the other side, as it were.  The first time conservative Muslims asked why I’d decided to write a biography of Muhammad, I spluttered in amazement: “But you don’t think he’s worth writing about?  This man who carved such a huge profile in history?  He’s your prophet, how can you even ask?”

It quickly became clear that this was not a sufficient answer, and that the question was not about my decision as a writer.  It was about my decision as a Jew.  Just as Green focused on Aslan’s Muslimness and assumed that his real agenda was to attack Christianity, so certain conservative Muslims focused on my Jewishness and assumed that my real agenda must have been to attack Islam.

Let’s get one thing straight right away:  just as many mainstream Christians have welcomed Aslan’s book, so many mainstream Muslims have welcomed mine.  It’s the conservatives we’re talking about here, those who cannot tolerate any deviance from received orthodoxy.

In the context of Fox’s Islamophobic politics on the one hand, and of the Israel-Palestine conflict on the other, perhaps such suspicion is inevitable.  But since Aslan’s book and mine both draw on scholarly resources but were written for general audiences, there’s another less obvious factor.  Most devout believers are unaware of the vast body of academic research on the early history of Christianity and Islam.  Used to hagiographic or devotional literature, they see any more dispassionate view of their revered figures as an assault on their belief.  Demanding perfection, they refuse to tolerate human imperfection.

But what if Green had interviewed Aslan not with the desire to criticize, but with the desire to know?  What if my conservative Muslim questioners had been more curious than judgmental?  Without such knee-jerk defensiveness, the question of what a non-Christian brings to the study of Jesus or a non-Muslim to that of Muhammad becomes an interesting one – a question, that is, about the value of the ‘outsider’ point of view.

Precisely because he or she does not come from a place of belief, what seems obvious to the insider is not at all so to the outsider.  It demands to be explored, to be understood on the multiple psychological, cultural, and political levels on which history takes place.  Done well, this process can create important new insights into otherwise received versions of history, opening up fresh ways of seeing and understanding, and finding new relevance in old stories.

As with Jesus, so with Muhammad:  by placing him in the world he experienced, in the full context of place and time, politics and culture – the ‘outsider’ biographer honors the man by honoring his lived experience.

Historical reality doesn’t detract from faith;  it humanizes it.  And when gross inhumanities are committed every day in the name of one faith or another, that alone should surely be more than enough reason to write.

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File under: agnosticism, Christianity, fundamentalism, Islam, Judaism | Tagged: Tags: 'Zealot', biography, Fox News, Islamophobia, outsider, Reza Aslan, The First Muslim, writing | 14 Comments
  1. mary scriver says:
    August 2, 2013 at 11:03 am

    The relevant term here is “fencing the Communion.” You know the little fence at the front of the church where you lean your elbows while waiting for the Elements to reach you? (Maybe not — ask a Catholic.) There was a huge early battle about who had to stay outside that railing and who was entitled to enter. Territoriality. Tribal. Strongest when the group is uneasy about its identity and afraid of dilution by outsiders. (Check the Mexican border. Heck, even the Canadian border.) Writing about American Indians without BEING American Indian is a mortal crime because it becomes harder and harder to define an American Indian.

    Prairie mary

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      August 2, 2013 at 11:13 am

      Great comment: territoriality is exactly the right word.

    • Mary Johnson (@_MaryJohnson) says:
      August 2, 2013 at 11:34 am

      Yes, Lesley you are SO right on here! And even if you’re a former believer, believers still automatically assume that a writer is out to, at best, criticize, at worst, completely demolish all they hold dear. People become so defensive that they can’t see that what a writer might really want to do is to explore, to understand, to express…..

      • Lesley Hazleton says:
        August 2, 2013 at 12:12 pm

        Yes, I saw it happening with you too, Mary. (For those who don’t know, Mary is a former nun who wrote a deeply moving memoir about her years with Mother Teresa and her decision to become secular: http://www.amazon.com/Unquenchable-Thirst-Memoir-Mary-Johnson/dp/0385527470/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375470558&sr=1-1&keywords=mary+johnson)

  2. sharmin banu says:
    August 2, 2013 at 11:14 am

    Very well said:).
    Most devout believers are unaware of the vast body of academic research on the early history of Christianity and Islam. Used to hagiographic or devotional literature, they see any more dispassionate view of their revered figures as an assault on their belief. Demanding perfection, they refuse to tolerate human imperfection.

  3. Fakhra says:
    August 2, 2013 at 4:52 pm

    Reblogged this on TOAL.

  4. saheemwani says:
    August 2, 2013 at 6:57 pm

    The advantage of a writer who doesn’t share the ideas/beliefs of the subject, in your case a prophet whose life was centered exactly on those ideas/beliefs, is a much-needed unbiased perspective of what that man did.

    The disadvantage could be not understanding the subject himself and missing out on the essence of why he did what he did.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      August 2, 2013 at 7:29 pm

      True, but understanding is on whose terms? Part of what I mean by “an agnostic eye” (in the banner of this blog) is an independent one.

  5. fatmakalkan says:
    August 3, 2013 at 11:37 pm

    I agree with you as a devout Muslim. In many verses in Quran Allah wants human-beings to contemplate but human- beings are afraid to contemplate about their faith. Or they are lazy or they simply doesn’t care about religion. They are culturally Jew , Christian or Muslim. They prefer to follow their forefathers religion not their own. When they pickup Revised addition of Bible how come they don’t ask this question: who has a right to revise God’s word? They are def, they are blind and impaired to think. My ten year old daughter was asking me about popular Belief about Jesus being son of God or being God. She asked me: don’t Christians think that Jesus died 2000 years ago if God died 2000 years ago who is running universe?and If Jesus couldn’t save himself how he is going to save them ? Or don’t they think how come eternal God dies?
    Bible says God is one! Why they made him 3? She is also asking about Islam and She is developing her faith. Contemplating is the key. Who doesn’t contemplate doesn’t have real faith they copy others faith.

  6. Tea-mahm says:
    August 6, 2013 at 11:28 am

    Yes! Keep the word bridges safe to pass over… thank you, Lesley and Reza. T’m

  7. anon says:
    August 11, 2013 at 10:34 pm

    I don’t think Aslan was writing as a “Muslim”—though it may have effected his perspective. I havn’t read the book but from watching various interviews, Aslan, apparently, puts the illiterate Jewish carpenter from Nazareth into a historical context/time-period.
    However,the picture of Jesus (pbuh) in the Quran is a Jewish man who is intelligent, literate, a good communicator, exceptionally skilled, and highly spiritual.

  8. Luis Alexis Rodríguez Cruz says:
    August 24, 2013 at 8:30 pm

    Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the matter. I think that the reporter did not use an intellectual point of view to question Aslan. Anyways, conservatism and closed minds always try to overlap what it is true. Also I think that his book is an academic book such as yours, books for academics, for open minded people, for intellectual people who think critically. Negative comments will always exist…

  9. Farrukh says:
    August 25, 2013 at 7:20 am

    Hello Lesley,

    I just wanted to appreciate your statement:

    Historical reality doesn’t detract from faith; it humanizes it. And when gross inhumanities are committed every day in the name of one faith or another, that alone should surely be more than enough reason to write.

    I’ve just placed the order of your book, The First Muslim in India, it was very expensive, however, they have now priced it correctly. This shall be my third biography on Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be on him, which I’m going two read. The other two by Karen Armstrong and Safiur Rehman Mubarakpuri.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      August 25, 2013 at 8:31 pm

      Thank you, Farrukh. And re The First Muslim, the UK edition is due out November 7. Since India is part of the ‘UK and Commonwealth’ distribution system, it should then be easily available in bookstores.

Mehdi Hasan — Pow!

Posted July 8th, 2013 by Lesley Hazleton

If you haven’t already heard of Mehdi Hasan, he’s the political editor of Huffington Post UK,  the former political editor of The New Statesman, and stunningly eloquent.  Plus he thinks even faster than he speaks.  Here he is carrying the day at the Oxford Union in the debate on whether Islam is a peaceful religion (to my mind a false premise from the start, since no religion is either “a religion of peace” or “a religion of war” unless the majority of its followers make it so — and yes, I include atheism in this):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy9tNyp03M0&w=560&h=315]

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File under: Islam, sanity | Tagged: Tags: 'religion of peace', 'religion of war', Islamophobia, Mehdi Hasan, Oxford Union | 3 Comments
  1. iobserveall says:
    July 8, 2013 at 11:29 am

    This is a very interesting speech. Whenever there is a mention of terrorists, it is always the Muslims or Hitler who are mentioned. Memories are short, the IRA used to be bombing a lot more regularly. They were political but also used the church to hide their weapons and maybe they were boy scouts in comparison to some terrorist organisations but people who are killed are dead whoever the culprit.

    I do not agree with the use of any religion for violent ends but I also do not believe anyone who says this. It is all political or for their own ends, whether monetary or revenge.

    Muslims may be accused of bigotry but there is plenty on all sides.

  2. Akifar Momin says:
    July 9, 2013 at 9:03 pm

    What a breath of fresh air after hearing Mehdi Hasan’s speech. I feel I’v been suffocating by listening to the wretched, dilapidated news outlets that is preached and spoonfed to us by mainstream media. There needs to be more people who have the audacity to speak, recognize truth, pursue knowledge instead of sitting there and taking the easy route by merely being goose-stepped into false assertions. Lesley Hazleton and Mehdi Hasan are emblematic to this approach.

  3. NHK says:
    July 10, 2013 at 5:25 am

    As an ‘accidendat theologist’ and perhaps s
    till sceptical you may not have percieved the ‘Peace’ concept in Islam.

Beyond Tarzan and Jane

Posted June 28th, 2013 by Lesley Hazleton

I just came across these four short clips from an interview I gave a few months ago — so impromptu and off the cuff that I’d forgotten I did it. Tarzan and Jane come up in the first one, when I’m asked about interfaith gatherings, which I generally find kind of stilted. “We tend to get together as me-Tarzan-you-Jane-we-friends,” I said. “That is, me-Jew-you-Muslim-we-friends. We need to get beyond that. We need to see each other first as people…. talk about anything but religion… eat together, two or three or four at a time, over our own dining tables…”

On the other hand, swinging around on those vines could be fun.

It seems I also had a thing or two to say about responding to Islamophobia, and about women in Islam:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC0TEgv8wJg&feature=share&list=PL2GledsAJtlnCZQD1DTLSadb395gWqnDz]

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File under: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, women | Tagged: Tags: eating together, humor, interfaith, interview, Islamophobia, Jew, Muslim, Muslims for Peace, women imams | 9 Comments
  1. sarabressler says:
    June 28, 2013 at 5:01 pm

    That’s a beautiful sentiment. I strive to have a way with words as you certainly do.

  2. Gary Rizzo says:
    June 28, 2013 at 7:58 pm

    Lesley…..is not faith the meaning of your life ?

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      June 28, 2013 at 8:17 pm

      Repeat: agnostic. I have no idea what “the meaning of my life” may be. Or indeed if there is any. I do my best to live it, that’s all.

  3. Reaching Out says:
    June 28, 2013 at 9:34 pm

    I love your mind… I love work, and by extension, love the person behind the work. May Allah bless you! 🙂

    • Reaching Out says:
      June 28, 2013 at 9:35 pm

      Correction: love your work

  4. Robert Corbett says:
    June 29, 2013 at 7:19 pm

    I think it got taken down, Lesley. At least the link is not showing up.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      June 30, 2013 at 9:04 am

      Just tried it on both my computer and my iPad, and it seems okay. Your glitch or mine, Roberto? Anyone else having trouble?

  5. Robert Corbett says:
    June 30, 2013 at 1:14 pm

    It’s back. Maybe it was a gremlin in my computer.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      June 30, 2013 at 2:19 pm

      A djinn!

What Happens When We Eat Together

Posted February 24th, 2013 by Lesley Hazleton

Let me say this upfront:  I’m lousy at interfaith gatherings.  They tend to have an oddly stilted feel.  There’s something of Tarzan and Jane about them: “Me Jew, you Muslim, we friends.”  Far better, I’ve long thought, to get together on a small scale, over the dinner table.  Cook together, break bread together, drink together, and allow the conversation to develop without that weirdly over-determined self-consciousness.

That’s part of what so impressed me in the response of New Zealanders Khayreyah Amani Wahaab and her husband Jason Kennedy to an Islamophobic rant (Muslims shouldn’t be allowed on airplanes, etc) by Richard Prosser, a New Zealand member of parliament:  as I reported here, they invited him to dinner.

And he came to dinner.  Here’s Khayreyah’s post on it last night on her Facebook page:

Tandoori-Chicken3Mr Richard Prosser has just left our house after having a lovely dinner of home-cooked tandoori chicken, salad and roti with raitha. He was very realistic about owning the words he said, but was very clear that whilst he is never going to apologize to terrorists, he is very apologetic and contrite about the hurt and whatever damage he has caused the rest of the Muslim community. He understands, accepts and recognises that the vast majority of Muslims are not terrorist types and have the same fears, values and aspirations that he does.

We both agreed that aviation security is a wider issue that does need to be addressed [Kahyreyrah has a degree in aviation management — LH], as well as that of Muslims having a louder voice in condemning extremists and their actions. Jason and I both thanked him in the end, since if it wasn’t for his brash words written in a news column, then we would not have identified these needs, that ultimately will benefit the entirety of New Zealand. All three of us are willing to forge a way forward for Muslims in New Zealand in order to make it a happier, safer place, and leading the world in Islamic – Western relations.

Richard did say, interestingly, that of all the mail, comments etc he received from people following the article, our letter by far made him feel worse than all the others. He finds himself to be a person who can deal with anger and resentment being directed towards him but felt out of place dealing with outreach born of love and a desire for understanding. Ultimately both sides agreed that we need to see each other as a whole and not just what the media had chosen to portray, that we cannot expect fair judgement if only one facet of ourselves are exposed to said judgement. We ended the night with a short TedX video of Lesley Hazleton’s talk about being a tourist in the Quran and we promised to have future interactions with a view to improving NZ as a whole. — with Jason Kennedy

Glad to have played a small supporting role.

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File under: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, sanity | Tagged: Tags: dinner, Islamophobia, Jason Kennedy, Khayreyah Wahaab, New Zealand, Richard Prosser | 7 Comments
  1. abbasij says:
    February 24, 2013 at 1:18 pm

    The moral is, we need to see each other as a whole and not just what media has chosen to portray.

  2. Muhammad Shukri bin Yaacob says:
    February 24, 2013 at 11:50 pm

    Ms.Hazleton,I watched and listened attentively to your talk on Quran,more than once.It is amazing and enrich my understanding.Thank you for your objective take on Islam.However,I think you should lay your claim on frontiers explored.What becomes of an explorer if after exploring the uncharted areas then just leave to others to benefit.You have found Islam,accept it.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      February 25, 2013 at 8:46 am

      Thank you, but… I respect your Islam; please respect my agnosticism.

  3. William Branch says:
    February 25, 2013 at 12:52 pm

    Sharing a community meal used to have a powerful symbology; it meant that all who shared were part of the same tribe. As sharing in a family meal meant that all who shared were part of the same family, in Semitic culture, within the boundaries of the “haram”. Worse yet if it involved sharing food that was not as “chalal/kosher” as what you normally ate. What if they were dressed or undressed in a strange way?

    This is a powerful challenge to our sense of self and of belonging (both of the ego), inciting the strongest prejudiced response in all people. How would you feel if some stranger entered your home without asking, sat down at your table, and proceeded to eat a meal with you using your supplies and his, in the presence of your own family members? That would take great forbearance for anyone to tolerate.

    How much more would it take to get beyond mere tolerance to a full embrace of “the other”? Though each society has its own way of de-fanging “the other” or its own children thru the customs of hospitality and parenting. Perhaps it is enough to realize that “the other” sees us just as much a stranger as we see them. Yet this is essentially the problem we have in a global village that we were unprepared for. Difference in metaphysics is small compared to our preference for the familiar.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      February 25, 2013 at 1:46 pm

      Made me think of the phrase “getting to know each other” — emphasis on “other.” The progression from ‘they’ to ‘you’ to ‘we.’

      • William Branch says:
        February 25, 2013 at 2:17 pm

        By Jove, you’ve got it! Human beings usually live with profoundly unconscious and unexamined reflexes learned in infancy and childhood … that much Dr Freud may be correct about. Usually our conscious beliefs are concocted to provide a rationalization for these reflexes, though usually profoundly simple (nudity, eating, touching et al), they are very hard to address with any skepticism, if we can be brought to think about them at all.

        Personal boundaries are a big assumption … starting with our own personhood and extending out to our many associates in complicated inter-related rings. A conversion experience if one has one, involves a profound reorientation of this whole architecture. We articulate in our thought, spoken language, and written language, a blueprint of all of this, from our own “north pole” position, as vast as our ability to attach labels to the sum of our human experience.

        The pronouns are among the oldest and most conservative words in any language (explicit or implicit depending on the language). I, thou, he/she/it, we, y’all (in my own dialect) and they. Sometimes these pronouns are “sexed” with two or more genders in languages more complicated than English (not a legitimate language, but a creole or pidgin), making this even more complicated. In some languages which pronoun you use even depends on your social class and the social class of the person you are addressing.

      • pah says:
        March 17, 2013 at 7:10 am

        belated reply
        i think ignorance plus arrogance is what truly separates us.
        and therin lies the problem, so your blog goes a long way to bringing us all together, so i agree with your progression from “me’ to “thee” keep up the good work, Lesley!

Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner

Posted February 13th, 2013 by Lesley Hazleton

When things seemed to be getting ever worse in the Middle East — as they always seemed to, and still do — we’d look at each other and say, wistfully, “There’s always New Zealand.”  New Zealand, for us, was the image of peacefulness, where nothing ugly ever happened.  We didn’t enquire too closely.

But of course even New Zealand has its bigots.  Like Richard Prosser, a Member of Parliament from the right-wing New Zealand First party, who two days ago published an ugly Islamophobic rant suggesting, among other things, that Muslims be banned from air travel.

So an Auckland Muslim sat down and wrote an open letter in response, and today it appeared in The New Zealand Herald.  I”m running it in full here because I’m bowled over by the wisdom and grace of it, and because it gets better and better as it goes on:

Dear Mr Prosser,

Unbeknown to myself, I am your enemy.

I consider this strange as I have never met you and harbour no ill will toward you. I am certain that if I walked past you on the street your suspicions would not be raised. If you were a customer in my shop I am certain you would not suspect that I pose your family any risk. For you see, I am Muslim, I am 30, and I am also white. Throw in the fact that I am an American expatriate – accent and all – and I possess quite the subterfuge. After all, I could sit next to you on a flight, our arms negotiating the armrest for space, and you would think nothing of it. And yet if between us the subject of religion arose, my reply would disable you with fear.

Or so your column would lead me to believe.

I am writing an open letter to you out of sympathy, respect, and the desire for understanding. I do not write this so publicly in order to give your opinions greater status than they deserve. Instead, I hope to circumvent your vitriol from tainting the views of other people who, through lack of personal experience with the Muslim community, may be susceptible to your very limited and ignorant view of our religion and families.

I will start by, ironically, providing you with some defence. It is absolutely your right to speak your mind freely with whatever opinions you so wish. That is one of the great liberties of this nation.

But let me be clear: speaking your mind is your right as a private citizen. As a Member of Parliament, you are a public servant, and your public opinions need to be more carefully delivered. You must be aware that the words of MPs are granted greater political legitimacy than those of private citizens.

It is frightening when someone with so much power to sway the opinions of others is so cavalier in his delivery. We entrust MPs to make defensible, rational, and sympathetic judgments in pursuit of the common good. Counter to this, your words seek to generate divisiveness by fostering an indefensible ‘us’ versus ‘them’ mentality.

Do you actually believe Muslims are so different to you that we should be trusted less than any other human being? Wherefore this presumption that those who commit terrible crimes in the name of Islam are actually considered heroes or true Muslims by the rest of us? Are we really so homologous to you? Woe to the Sikh or Hindu who you might accidentally recognise for a Muslim in your eagerness to incite fear, all the while I, the unrecognisable white Muslim, sits next to you.

For you see, if the subject of religion is never broached between us, you will feel safer the entire trip knowing you sit next to a safe and reliable Pakeha. Let me assure you, I want that plane to land safely just as much as you do. I have family and friends who I want to be around for a good long time, and so do they.

The only reason I can think that you would harbour such ill-sentiment is that you have very little first-hand experience with Muslims. I can relate. I was not born into a Muslim family. However, with age I came to recognise my beliefs were congruent with Islam. That seemed a bit of a scary prospect, as I am sure you can appreciate that there is a great deal of Islamophobia in the United States, as well.

Once I actually met some Kiwi Muslims, I quickly realised my presumptions were entirely inaccurate. Muslim culture is not some monolithic fiction. Muslims are just like the majority of Kiwis: we love our summer barbecues, we avidly follow the All Blacks’ domination of rugby, we wear jandals, we buy fish n’ chips down the road. You see, Muslims come from all different backgrounds. I was born in the US and descend from Irish stock. My wife was born in Fiji, and her Indian ancestors were relocated during the British slave trade. Many Kiwi Muslims are from India, the Middle East, east Africa, Indonesia, and Malaysia. We have all come here to share in what it means to be Kiwi. Between us we have a similar pathway to God, but we also respect that every non-Muslim is on their own pathway to God.

Your family and my family, we are each equally Kiwi, despite the fact that we may worship differently. We are equal to you in many other ways: my wife and I both happily pay the highest tax rate, our business creates revenue and employment for many New Zealanders, and our education benefits the New Zealand economy. We are even socially and politically active (gasp!).

If you think supporting terror is somehow intrinsic to Islam, or is somehow an inevitability of our religion, ask anyone in the Muslim community here: no one supports any act of violence or terror against any other living being, human or animal. That is what we call haram in Islam, which means “forbidden by God”. We have no support for terrorists who do such horrible things, and we cannot understand how they can call themselves Muslims. Their actions are entirely incompatible with Islam.

In order to establish better communication on this issue, my wife and I would like to invite you to dinner at our place the next time you are in Auckland. We would like to hear your story, and we would like to share ours. I believe that if you would grant us the pleasure of your company, it will give you a much more enlightened perspective on Muslims and Islam in general. I will leave my contact details with the editor if you wish to make good on our offer.

khayreyahTwo enemies who wish
to be your friends,
Jason (Naveed) Kennedy and
Khayreyah Wahaab

Update:  Prosser has accepted the invitation to dinner.  I’m sorely tempted to start a contest for suggestions as to what will be on the menu, but that wouldn’t do justice to the spirit of Jason Kennedy and Khayreyah Wahaab.  Talk about the better angels of our nature…!

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File under: Islam, sanity | Tagged: Tags: Islamophobia, Jason Kennedy, Khayreyah Wahaab, New Zealand, Richard Prosser | 4 Comments
  1. Ross says:
    February 13, 2013 at 11:34 pm

    Please, anyone reading this, don’t think that most New Zealanders share this man’s bigotry. I lived and worked there for the bulk of my vocational life and my children are Kiwis. Maori culture, they say, runs like a golden thread through the whole country and its people and elicits a tolerance and comradeship.

  2. Saimã Abbasi says:
    February 14, 2013 at 2:51 pm

    Honestly this is what every Muslim thinks who is interacting with such non Muslims. Because of some people why to condemn all Muslims, why to blame Islam? He said it all. In everyday life you and me are not different, yes our believes are different, so are our faces, our personalities, our whole lives are different from each other and still we both are, we all are humans, sharing this beautiful earth and universe. Isn’t it so?

  3. Sandra says:
    February 14, 2013 at 7:27 pm

    I live in NZ and remember the disbelief and shock when I heard it on the radio, I have not met anyone who has agreed with this view and I feel sad it makes headlines elsewhere.
    This is not a typical kiwi thinking or belief.

  4. pah says:
    February 26, 2013 at 7:32 am

    lovely letter, like the invite to dinner bit…perfect.
    also, to make a point, Eastern European Muslims are white, and you could easily be sitting next to a Muslim from Eastern Europe…..the world never seems to learn and it is so sad

The Right Video To Go Viral

Posted September 18th, 2012 by Lesley Hazleton

Nouman Ali Khan of the Bayyinah Institute makes a calm, reasoned, Quran-based argument against violent protest of that noxious little anti-Islam video.  It’s encouraging to see that so many people have tuned in to him:

[youtube=http://youtu.be/I6zuKbBlmRo]

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File under: Islam, sanity | Tagged: Tags: Bayyinah Institute, Islamophobia, Muhammad, Nouman Ali Khan, Quran | 8 Comments
  1. sam enerby says:
    September 18, 2012 at 3:08 pm

    Leslie,
    Thank you for this.

  2. Qaisar Latif says:
    September 18, 2012 at 4:26 pm

    Here’s another good one …
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzpIcdd75dA

  3. Michael Camp says:
    September 18, 2012 at 4:32 pm

    Yes, very encouraging, Leslie. Thanks for sharing.

  4. Global Sisters says:
    September 19, 2012 at 12:17 am

    thank you

  5. rehmat1 says:
    September 27, 2012 at 5:00 pm

    Canadian Jewish academic, Henry Makow PhD, who as a young Zionist spent a few years at illegal Jewish settlement in occupied Palestine – says that the murder of US ambassador was an Israeli false flag operation to push America into war with Iran.

    “The US ambassador to Libya murdered earlier today was a martyr to Zionist attempts to draw the US into war with Iran.

    http://rehmat1.com/2012/09/12/libya-you-reap-what-you-sow/

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      September 27, 2012 at 8:01 pm

      I’m sure there are many such conspiracy theories. I give them no credit.

      • rehmat1 says:
        October 9, 2012 at 5:27 am

        Your response is no surprise to me. In Canada, anti-Israel is officially considered ‘anti-Semitism’. However, Makow is 101% Jewish and as a youth lived in one of the illegal Jewish settlements.

  6. irfan says:
    October 1, 2012 at 7:33 pm

    this one from India…..
    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/Blasphemy-in-Islam-The-Quran-does-not-prescribe-punishment-for-abusing-the-Prophet/articleshow/16631496.cms

Could That Video Be Self-Defeating?

Posted September 15th, 2012 by Lesley Hazleton

Could that pernicious video have ended up working against itself?  Could this be the tipping point for both Islamophobia and its mirror image, militant “Islamist” extremism?  Is this where both are revealed for the ugly con game they really are?

Perhaps the one good thing about the video is that it is so upfront in its ugliness.  It’s no longer just you and I saying it;  it’s also the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, whose anger was palpable:  “To us, to me personally, this video is disgusting and reprehensible. It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose: to denigrate a great religion and to provoke rage.”

Now we know who made the video:  a convicted con man, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, indicted on multiple charges of bank fraud and check-kiting.  And he may indeed end up back in jail, since by posting his work to the Internet he violated the terms of his probation.  That’s little consolation, of course, for the multiple deaths he’s caused — at least a dozen so far.  And none at all for those who don’t understand that the principle of freedom of speech, no matter how hard it is to accept, applies to all. Under a different administration, the same principle by which they demand that he be jailed could then be turned around and applied to them.

But we know more.  We know that the protests against the video have been used and manipulated by Al Qaeda and Salafi types, who manipulated the sincere outrage and insult of protestors to further their own political agenda and try to destabilize newly elected governments.  In the process, they also furthered the agenda of their Islamophobic blood brothers, providing graphic images of Muslims doing everything Islamophobes expect — rioting, burning, killing.  But for the first time, all countries involved seem to have clearly recognized this and given voice to it, perhaps none more perfectly than Hillary Clinton: “”The people of Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Tunisia did not trade the tyranny of a dictator for the tyranny of a mob.”

We know that Twitter is alive with condemnations of the violence from Libyans, Tunisians, Egyptians, and more.  Mainstream Muslims, both religious and secular, will no longer tolerate being intimidated into silence by those who claim to speak in their name for a violent, extremist travesty of Islam.  They are speaking out in unprecedented volume and numbers.

And we know this:  the new governments of Libya and Yemen instantly condemned the violence and apologized for the death of Ambassador Stevens.  In the words of the president of the Libyan National Congress, it was “an apology to the United States and the Arab people, if not the whole world, for what happened.  We together with the United States government are on the same side, standing in a united front in the face of these murderous outlaws.”  Residents of Tripoli and Benghazi staged demonstrations to condemn the attack on the Benghazi consulate and to express their sorrow at the death of Stevens, who was widely admired for his support of the revolution that ousted Qaddafi.

Even the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt finally realized that this was not a matter of defending Islam against outside enemies, but of defending it against its own worst enemies on the inside.

All this, it seems to me, is new.  As is the reaction of the US administration, led by Obama and Clinton — calm, measured, determined, and in the spirit of Ambassador Stevens himself,  the opposite of the heavy-handed American imperialism of the past.  Imagine if this had happened under Bush, or under Romney, and shudder at how they would have reacted.

Could it be, finally, that more and more people are getting it?  That both the Islamists and the Islamophobes are losing?  That sanity, however high the cost in lives, might actually prevail?

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File under: fundamentalism, Islam, Middle East, ugliness | Tagged: Tags: Al Qaeda, Egypt, Hillary Clinton, Islamophobia, Libya, Muslim Brotherhood, Nakoula, Obama, Salafis, Tunisia, Twitter, Yemen, YouTube video | 9 Comments
  1. Yafiah Katherine says:
    September 15, 2012 at 12:15 pm

    It’s so refreshing to read such a clear-headed account of the situation. I’ve been feeling so down-hearted throughout this awful mess and I hope too that it will become clearer to everyone how Islamophobes and extreme Islamists are mirror-images of each other. But surely there is a line between freedom of speech and hate speech that incites to violence? I’ve been so frustrated at the BBC reporting on ‘a video that Muslims find insensitive’ instead of saying loud and clear that it’s totally unacceptable as much as the manipulation of the protests is totally unacceptable. I’m tweeting your post and sharing it on FB. Thank you.

  2. Sandra Peters says:
    September 15, 2012 at 1:00 pm

    Lesley,

    Thank You for such an excellent perspective of how the world is reacting to the video. Violence and destruction are not the answer. “Calm, measured, determined, and in the spirit of Ambassador Stevens himself” as you so wrote will prevail.

  3. burhan says:
    September 15, 2012 at 2:03 pm

    Lesley hazleton, Im your biggest fan and I wish I could ever come to the same intelligence level as you one day! Burhan Adhami

  4. Herman says:
    September 15, 2012 at 5:29 pm

    Amazing,
    In Egypt they televise a series based on the fictitious Protocols of the elders of Zion, in Iran a conference is held regarding the non happening of the Holocaust, Christians are murdered all over Muslim Africa and Egypt and you are blaming everything on Al Quaeda.
    You are kidding right?

  5. Qaisar Latif says:
    September 16, 2012 at 1:32 am

    Well said.

  6. Meera Vijayann says:
    September 16, 2012 at 1:34 am

    Thank you for this great read Lesley. Honestly, when I watched the video, I first thought it was absolute nonsense, and was surprised that such rubbish could be taken seriously. In fact, if the movie was indeed to be taken seriously, it was perhaps a good opportunity for the Muslim world to ignore it and refuse to stoop so low by giving it the attention it intended to garner.

    As you rightly said, I am glad too that the Bush government isn’t in power. I shudder to think of what would’ve happened if it were.

  7. Meezan says:
    September 16, 2012 at 8:56 am

    Silver lining to a very very dark cloud.

  8. Tea-mahm says:
    September 17, 2012 at 1:49 pm

    You go girl! Good piece. Sending love from Istanbul where the call to prayer wakes me in the morning…..

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      September 17, 2012 at 2:56 pm

      Sooooo envious! One day I will make it to Istanbul!

Blood Brothers

Posted September 12th, 2012 by Lesley Hazleton

Once again, the extremists have fed each other.  Once again, with other people’s blood.

The blood is that of one of the best friends the new Libya could have had:  US Ambassador Christopher Stevens, killed yesterday, the evening of 9/11, along with three of his staff as they tried to evacuate employees of the American consulate in Benghazi.  The evacuation was necessary because protestors had been whipped into violence by a 14-minute farce of a video attacking the prophet Muhammad.  Or, as now seems possible, the protest was used as an excuse for a planned attack, since RPGs and automatic weapons were involved.

Al-Qaeda-type extremists are apparently the ones who pulled the trigger, using the insult to Islam as an excuse. But they could not have done so without the help of their partners — their Jewish and Christian brothers-in-arms right here in the United States. That’s who provided the ammunition, in the form of a shoddily crude and absurdly amateurish “movie trailer” portraying Muhammad as a fraud and his early supporters as a bunch of goons.

I’m deliberately not linking to the video here since I refuse to link to such tripe. This isn’t an insult to Islam;  it’s an insult to human intelligence. If you feel sufficiently masochistic, you can find it on YouTube by typing in the title, ‘Muslim Innocence’ (the director’s idea of irony).

You’ll see that it’s made by ignorant fanatics for ignorant fanatics. Nobody else would pay it the blindest bit of attention. In fact nobody else did (even the director, an Israeli-American who goes by the name of Sam Bacile, which may or may not be a pseudonym, admits that the whole movie has been shown only once, to a nearly empty movie theater in California). Nobody else, that is, until Florida’s tinpot Quran-burning pastor Terry Jones — the one who once hanged President Obama in effigy and will apparently do anything to get himself back in the news — decided to showcase the trailer as part of his annual 9/11 Islamophobic rant.

I’ll write more about this very soon (I’m just back from a trip, and jet-lagged). But for now, two things:

1. Rest in peace, Christopher Stevens.

2. As for Terry Jones and the man calling himself Sam Bacile: if such a thing as hell exists, may you both rot in it, alongside your blood brothers in Al Qaeda.

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File under: Christianity, fundamentalism, Islam, Judaism, ugliness | Tagged: Tags: 'Sam Bacile', Al Qaeda, Ambassador Stevens, Benghazi, bigotry, Islamophobia, Libya, Muhammad, Terry Jones, YouTube | 13 Comments
  1. lavrans123 says:
    September 12, 2012 at 7:54 pm

    I think it was a Libyan politician who said that the film was like crying fire in a movie theater; you’re free to say it, but once said you may have to pay the consequences. Too bad the wrong people always seem to pay the consequences for these type of people’s actions.

    Another sad facet to the whole thing is how 9/11 rouses so many bigots, and how this sort of thing seems to convince more people to become bigots because they won’t see Terry Jones & Sam Bacile as being complicit. Although I’m sure they’re the same people who really complained about the flag and Christ being immersed in urine…

  2. Zahida Murtaza (@zmurrad) says:
    September 13, 2012 at 4:55 am

    Thanks Lesley, for speaking up once again like so many other times when many of us just cringe and feel upset at such things. There are no words to describe the actions and methods some people choose to show their dislike for someone or something. They must be feeling defeated that’s why they have to keep coming with new ways to show their anger and frustration.
    What I don’t understand about the people who react so violently to such provocations and filth if they really ‘KNOW’ the man they think they are defending by their actions. The man ‘Prophet Muhammad’ suffered so much insult and abuse at the hands of ignorant and misguided people in his own lifetime, but never reacted this way. As a matter of fact, just the opposite. He was most forgiving and used such actions as teachable moments.
    What do we learn from his ‘sunnah’? We will be hurting him more by killing innocent people in his name. I beg all those muslims who respond to hate with more hate to go back to the teachings of Prophet Muhammed and follow his practice. As Allah calls him the ‘ ‘blazing, bright sun’ in the Quran, so what happens when we trying to spit at the sun? I will come back on our face. We should wait for that moment. It will come back on ‘their face’.
    Thanks

  3. Trying God's Patience says:
    September 13, 2012 at 9:59 am

    Always sensible, always well-informed, and isn’t it always not-that-complicated really – thank you, as always. xo

  4. Susan Jackson Weirauch says:
    September 13, 2012 at 10:39 am

    I absolutely agree with you and Jones makes me embarrassed to live in the same state as he does. He is a terrorist and should be arrested and tried as such.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      September 13, 2012 at 11:09 am

      Obviously I detest the man as much as you. He’s a dangerous big-mouthed loose-cannon bigot, but terrorists are defined by their actions, not their speech. He feeds terrorism, but he does not commit it, nor directly urge people to commit it, and thus, however abhorrent the idea may be, he is not legally liable. If that seems wrong, then answer this: do you really want to live in a country where it’s possible to jail people for what they say? Where under a different administration, you could then be jailed for what you say?

  5. Imraan says:
    September 13, 2012 at 3:11 pm

    Unfortunately this fellow seems to have the usual axe to grind. Following from what you wrote, I did not watch the trailer as you’re right, it’s rather masochistic to willingly engage in such ignorance (if I understood you correctly).

    But I don’t see this as particularly controversial – historically, various sainted characters have been villified, defamed, insulted. But the test of one’s faith is, importantly, whether it can stand criticism. I think Islam fundamentally can. Scholars, Imams, sheikhs historically have been known to respond to various criticisms in the seminaries – and no one had to get killed (in general). Moreover, the voice of the Qur’an has rebutted, in its own days, the claims made against it and the Prophet – so following on in its example, I would hope that Muslims would do the same.

    Now whether (we) Muslims can, is a different question. Of course, and this isn’t legitimising the violence, in a society where the religious culture is more apparent, where religious sentiments are heightened and people hold dear (not in a hagiographic sense always) a truly great and charismatic personality, I can understand how the sentiments spill over.

    This isn’t considering who actually committed the acts of barbarism – if they’re from the mujahid persuasion (and I suspect they might be as automatic weapons were apparently used) then of course their logic is rather different and perhaps needs to be contextualised in a more third-world (lack of literacy, poor socio-economic means, different religious culture?), anti-hegemonic, anti-imperial/postcolonial situation – again not justifying it, and ironically enough these groups tend to be funded from the West or its client states. Unfortunately the actions of those in arms will give fodder to those who think such a film is timely.

    I can understand the anger – what is curious to me is that the US government and its representatives are still, at least in Libyan eyes (and I could be misreading the situation) conflated with both anti-Islamic sentiments, and perhaps even with either a Jewish/Zionist anti-Arab/anti-Islamic conspiracy – and though I don’t tend to conflate Judaism with Zionism, I can certainly understand why in that part of the world they do.

    “[109:5] For you is your faith, and for me, my faith.”

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      September 13, 2012 at 5:30 pm

      Re “in Libyan eyes,” it seems the majority of Libyans, as well as the Libyan government, are sincere in their denunciation of this murder, not least because they appreciate the role of the US — and in particular of the assassinated ambassador — in helping oust Qaddafi. Paranoid rhetoric about US imperialism in the post-Bush/Cheney era seems to be the much reduced province of militant extremists like Salafis and Qaeda, not the mainstream. As has been noted endlessly in the past 48 hours, Libyan politics are still, in the word of choice of the NYT, “volatile,” but I get the impression that many more citizens of Muslim countries are sick and tired of the way militant fundamentalists distort Islam and manipulate it to serve their own interests.

      • Imraan says:
        September 13, 2012 at 6:24 pm

        Fair points. Thank you for responding. I hope that you’re having a blessed and peaceful night.

        I should have been more specific – In some Libyans’ eyes – but even that, you are correct, is a rather broad generalisation.

        I suspect many are pleased with the ousting of Qaddafi, though I hope Libyans will still remember to view US motives with suspicion. I’m no apologist for political thuggery nor dictators, despots or demagogues, but I don’t believe (but am willing to be shown otherwise) that the removal of Qaddafi was sincere, alas, in the same way that the U.S stood by Mubarak until his position was completely untenable, or becoming an embarrasment for the State Department.

        Moreover the US/Western track record on Iraq, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iran and the Palestinians are rather problematic. As someone from the anti-war movement said, if the major Libyan export was asparagus, would we be so sure that the U.S would have interveined? Rhetoric aside, it did give me pause to consider that question.

        “Paranoid rhetoric about US imperialism in the post-Bush/Cheney era seems to be the much reduced province of militant extremists like Salafis and Qaeda, not the mainstream”

        Do you mean in terms of how the Libyans/Middle Easterners at large might not be as inclined to agree with the suggestion that the U.S’ interests aren’t imperial? Though I don’t agree with the tactics of al-Qaeda and Salafis, nor do I understand their (rather warped) theology, I do believe sincerely that the U.S (particularly, but not exclusively) is perpetrating a rather sharp imperial agenda (though there could be neomarxist readings into that too, which I might be mistakenly be calling Imperialist).

        Moreover, their funding of militants in Syria (and I do pray that the Syrians win democracy for themselves) via client states i.e. Saudi Arabia, Turkey is highly suspect – I don’t think the concern was so great for the Syrians ten years ago; and as I understand it the Assad and Qaddafi governments were participants in the Extraordinary Rendition project.

        The irony of course was that Syria got suspended from the Arab League – a collection of western-backed totalitarian regimes – for squashing a democratic revolution (!); or that when the Saudi government became one of the leading voices for democracy in Syria, the Obama administration, and Secretary of State Clinton soon realised how farcial it was to call their movement the Friends of Democratic Syria.

        Perhaps I have read too much Chomsky, though!

        Mehdi Hasan (I think) said some months ago, that as a proportion of their population, the Bahrainis have suffered far more repression, torture, imprisonment than Syrians (at least at the time) but of course the arms trade resumed with Bahrain – moreover the 5th Fleet happens to be stationed there so we don’t get as much coverage in the news about it. We (and I say this with some guilt as a British citizen) armed Qaddafi, Saddam, al-Khalifa.

        “http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/04/cnn-international-documentary-bahrain-arab-spring-repression”

        If you haven’t seen the reports yet, alternate new outlets, e.g Press TV, as well as al-Manar and Zee News have been reporting today that ‘surveillance’ drones have been dispached to Libya in the wake of the murders at the US embassy (assassinations? I never know how important one must be in order to be assassinated), as well as ships from one of the Naval fleets – this does worry me indeed and seems to be part of a policy that some might call neocolonial. In the same way that the US is shooting fire from the skies elsewhere over foreign territory (Somalia, Pakistan, Yemen), I fear that this could set a rather terrifying precedent.

        • Imraan says:
          September 13, 2012 at 6:32 pm

          I’ve just realised I’ve been writing an argument rather than a response; apologies if my tone was overly-confrontational.

          • Lesley Hazleton says:
            September 13, 2012 at 7:27 pm

            Apologies accepted, but it’s good to have reasoned argument from another point of view. Killing an ambassador does count as an assassination, though. And thus as an international crisis point. So far, Obama seems to be handling it well. I clearly have a lot more faith in his administration than you do. Or maybe I just don’t expect perfection. That is, I never expected him to be the messiah. What I did expect is what he’s been: a sane, intelligent leader doing his best in the face of intense obstructionism here at home. Only ideologues stay ‘pure’ — and ideologues are precisely the problem, both in the US and abroad.

  6. Imraan says:
    September 13, 2012 at 3:13 pm

    Reblogged this on Heightened Senses and commented:
    I seem to be more and more referring to this blog! In response to the events of the last couple of days, Hazleton writes a rather good piece.

  7. Imraan says:
    September 20, 2012 at 3:36 pm

    Firstly – sorry I vanished! Had a weird week healthwise! Indeed, reasoned debate is something I aspire to. I wonder if it’s much harder to have in the states – the political system seems so be one of extremes – even though in many respects, the centre ground appears much closer to both ‘ends’ of the spectrum in the US in general than it it does here.

    Indeed, the ideologues unfotunately have made having any sort of debate with nuance very, very difficult, and at times, a rather tortuous process. I certainly believe that Obama is better than the alternatives, but alas his capacity, even as a self-proclaimed centrist, has been hindered because of (in my perhaps unqualified opinion) operant (I think that’s the word I’m looking for!) power structures and control of both information and resources – I certainly didn’t expect him to be able to change those mechanisms, at least to any degree that would alter the landscape of the discourse dramatically.

    But I’ll give it to him – the man is actually quite intelligent. I wish he had better PR though – those speeches he gave which appeared to have mobilised a generation is what he should have worked on more – brought the country over to his side so that at least if Congress didn’t act /cooperate according to the new political landscape, he wouldn’t be seen as culpable or as easy a target for the Romney bid. I don’t know if that would have help curb the now nearly fanatical the Tea-Party movement – and I understand he had a rather damaged economy to deal with too.

    In terms of foreign policy, thogh, I’m glad on the one hand that his policies on Iran haven’t been as aggressive as McCain’s or (God-forbid Romney) would be, and that though it hasn’t made much of a difference, his attitude toward the Palestinian statehood-bid has been more positive than we’ve seen for about a decade; on the other hand I’m so gravely disappointed at the policies toward, say, Latin America, Cuba/GTMO, and now the ‘hit list’ scandal which is still being written about in our papers here, at the least. But in terms of domestic policy, of course, living abroad, I can’t gauge the political climate on the ground as well as you can. Though in my opinion, his hand in widening the healthcare availability (though certainly not an ideal system by far) is his saving grace in my eyes.

    But unless if his policies are more focussed or he has better success with Congress in the next term, I’m worried that he will have missed some rather large opportunities in terms of creating a more friendly, fair and less imperial image of the US, both at home and abroad. Maybe once he’s in his next term, with the end-point somewhat in sight, he might be able to take greater political risks. As an example, I’m not much of a fan of Clinton but he appears to be remembered quite well in the ‘liberal’ (and I find it rather odd that Clinton’s something of a liberal – or at least in the O’Reilly, Coulter, Malkin, Limbaugh et al paradigm, haha!) press.

    Reading this back to myself – I’m realising that my own terms and references to American politics is one of extremes also – my discourse if framed by the reportage of the international press and Democracy Now! – so perhaps I’m my own problem here!

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      September 23, 2012 at 4:04 pm

      One of the United States’ many problems: not only is socialism a dirty word (as in the Republican campaign against “socialized medicine”) but so too is the word ‘liberal.’ You’re right in that the mainstream political spectrum here is far narrower than that in the UK and most of Europe. For an ex-Brit like me, it can be… frustrating.

Hazleton on Hitchens

Posted February 3rd, 2012 by Lesley Hazleton

Last month, Town Hall Seattle ran a program called ‘Three Lives,’  originally touted as eulogies of three public figures — Christopher Hitchens, Kim Jong-Il, and Vaclav Havel — linked by the sole fact that they’d happened to die within four days of each other in December.  I was asked to speak about Hitchens.  “No way,” I said.  “Not unless you’re ready for an anti-eulogy.”

They were.

Here’s the video, in which I start at about the 4.45 time mark, running to 23.10.

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But if you want to see a really great presentation, go back to the video and start at the 57.35 mark, where ACT Theatre artistic director Kurt Beattie and actors Bob Wright and Tom Carrato deliver a stunning tribute to Vaclav Havel, inspiring me to go out and buy a copy of ‘Disturbing the Peace’ the next day, when I also read this moving assessment by his long-time translator, Paul Wilson.  I’m only sorry Havel had to die for me to pay closer attention.  But then that’s kind of Wilson’s point.

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File under: agnosticism, atheism, feminism, fundamentalism, Islam, Judaism | Tagged: Tags: ACT Theatre, antisemitism, Christopher Hitchens, Iraq war, Islamophobia, journalism, Kim Jong-Il, Kurt Beattie, Margaret Thatcher, torture, Town Hall Seattle, Vaclav Havel | 5 Comments
  1. homophilosophicus says:
    February 3, 2012 at 7:56 pm

    Dear Leslie, sycophancy isn’t really what I do best, so I shall keep this brief. Your blog is marvellous. See, that was brief. I have been surfing for this brand of intelligent read for a while, and the reason for this is that I am stuck. Recently ‘homophilosophicus’ (an Irish theology blog) has begun an interfaith project at which I would dearly like you to take a peek. At present we are short on a Jewish voice, female voices in general and a Feminist opinion. You may not have the time, you may not even be interested, but please take a look:
    http://homophilosophicus.wordpress.com/introduction/
    and the contributors so far:
    http://homophilosophicus.wordpress.com/contributors/
    Yes, we run the risk of looking rather pale in your light (there’s that sycophant again!), but this is something we are willing to risk.

    The pay scale is rubbish (non-existent in fact), but if we could entice you in anyway whatsoever please mail me on:
    homophilosophicus.wordpress@gmail.com

    Jason Michael

  2. snow black says:
    February 13, 2012 at 10:12 am

    Bravo, and thanks for reading Hitchens so I don’t have to, as they say. I’ve always prided myself on having grown out of my taste for his brand of bullshit well before the Iraq war made plain his true nature.

  3. Imraan says:
    May 23, 2012 at 10:08 am

    Reblogged this on Heightened Senses and commented:
    Though I have not read her works (yet, and yes, it is on my to read list; I can’t wait for her biography of the Prophet to be published), Ms Hazelton is one of the most articulate (and astute at that) speakers I have heard, and if that is anything to go by, I cannot wait to get started on her books; this might sound sycophantic but I really love the way her mind seems to work, and how she appropriates words in a nuanced and colourful way, without ever distorting her topic.

    Do watch this eulogy

  4. Imraan says:
    May 23, 2012 at 2:27 pm

    What an excellent presentation; your case was cogent, and very sharply articulated! I’m glad that there are those ‘out there’ in the world who don’t drool over him or his work, or can’t help but fawn because of his ability to produce quotes; I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him whilst listening to him- his life appears to have been wasted, and I pray mine does not go the way of his. As George Galloway wrote, “He wrote like an angel but placed himself in the service of the devils.”

    I hope you don’t mind but I have reblogged this.

    Regards,

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      June 2, 2012 at 9:42 am

      I can just imagine him wincing at that Galloway quote!

The Holy Hand Grenade

Posted February 1st, 2012 by Lesley Hazleton

Groundhog-like, the hermit emerges briefly to note a small victory for sanity this week, when the US military academy at West Point was forced to rescind an invitation to certified bigot and extremist William Boykin, a self-described ‘Kingdom Warrior,’ to address their national prayer breakfast.

In fact they didn’t actually un-ask him.  They gave him the option of saying he was canceling.  I believe the technical military term for this is Covering Your Ass.

That’s the good news, sort of.  The bad news is of course that he was even invited in the first place.

And the real point is this:  what the hell is the US military academy doing having a ‘national prayer breakfast’ in the first place?

To which a friend  commented by forwarding this video clip (as he notes, it even includes a reference to breakfast cereal):

[youtube=http://youtu.be/xOrgLj9lOwk]

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File under: absurd, Christianity, Islam | Tagged: Tags: Islamophobia, Monty Python, prayer breakfast, West Point, William Boykin | Be the First to leave a comment

Soccer v. Headscarf: 0-1

Posted June 10th, 2011 by Lesley Hazleton

More absurdity this week:  FIFA, the international governing body of football, banned the Iranian women’s soccer team from an Olympic qualifying event because the players wear hijab — Islamic headscarves.  The official reason:  safety.  Wearing a hijab while playing “could cause choking injuries.”

Yeah, sure.  As one commenter noted, Google “hijab soccer choking deaths” and the search engine doesn’t exactly hum.

These aren’t just any hijabs, mind you.  They have to be the coolest  ones ever.  They’re like speed-skaters’ hoods, and the players look like white-clad ninjas.   I’ll bet they can move like ninjas too.   Clearly FIFA has no sense of style.

Correction:  FIFA has no sense, period.

The decision to ban the Iranian team was made by FIFA head Sepp Blatter, who’s apparently one of those Berlusconi-type men who’ll tell you how much he loves women, by which he means how much he loves looking at female flesh.  No, I’m not making assumptions.  The arrant hypocrisy of this ban is clear when you consider the fact that Blatter proposed in 2004 that women players wear plunging neckines and hot pants on the pitch to boost soccer’s popularity.  Tighter shorts, he said, would create “a more female esthetic.”

I guess it was kind of amazing he didn’t propose wet tee-shirts.

And if you believe that Blatter is for a moment concerned about women being injured, his response to requests by human rights organizations to take a stand against the sex trafficking that accompanies the arrival of the World Cup was this:  “Prostitution and trafficking of women does not fall within the sphere of responsibility of an international sports federation but in that of the authorities and the lawmakers of any given country.”

No, Blatter’s all about the sport.  He’s presumably salivating for more on-field celebrations like Brandi Chastain‘s famous shirtless moment when the U.S. won the 1999 Women’s World Cup.  And drooling over women’s sportswear catalogs instead of Victoria’s Secret ones.  In which case he’s pathetically misreading that Chastain photo.  This was the victory of hard work and muscle over frills and pretty posturing.  Serena Williams revolutionized women’s tennis in much the same way, making it a power game (in dress as well as style of play — the black catsuit she wore a couple of years back was dynamite).

What Blatter’s really doing is trying to piggyback on the burqa ban in France and the minaret ban in his native Switzerland.  But the good news is that it’s backfiring on him.  Badly.  Already the focus of multiple accusations of corruption in his 12-year tenure as FIFA president, he probably saw this as an easy way to try to redeem himself by jumping on the anti-Muslim bandwagon.  Instead, the storm of criticism might be an indication that Europeans are beginning to realize just how badly they’ve been manipulated by misogynistic xenophobes on such issues as burqa bans.

One further note on that shirtless photo:  Chastain herself was amazed when it ran worldwide .  “I wasn’t trying to make a statement;  I was just carried away, and doing what male players do in the same situation,” she told me when I met her not long after.  “I was really surprised there was so much fuss about it.  I mean, there’s a much better photo of the victory moment, but nobody ran that one.”  Here it is, on the right — the photo they didn’t run, baggy shirt, baggy pants, and all.  Which I guess just means the world is full of Blatters.

—————————

(Thank to Sarah Hashim for alerting me to this story.  I know I was born in England, but soccer’s not my thing.  Tennis, though…)

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File under: absurd, feminism, Islam | Tagged: Tags: ban, Berlusconi, Brandi Chastain, FIFA, football, headscarves, hijab, Iran, Islamophobia, Olympics, Sepp Blatter, Serena Williams, sex trafficking, soccer, tennis, women, World Cup, xenophobia | 8 Comments
  1. Sanaa says:
    June 10, 2011 at 10:49 am

    Thank you for your insight and humor, and for posting this. Sanaa

  2. kyo_9 says:
    June 10, 2011 at 11:11 am

    Pity for Iranian Women Soccer team..
    But more pity when I heard that it was Bahrain who filed the statement during the match.. Funny when football meets politics and religion.. 😉

  3. Adila says:
    June 10, 2011 at 5:42 pm

    Interesting reading!

  4. Philip says:
    June 13, 2011 at 12:29 pm

    It is time other players on other teams refused to play if an injustice is done to other players on other teams such as in the case of the Iranian women. The old corrupt men who run FIFA should be embarassed by the athletes for whom the game exists.

  5. Piotr Rozwalka says:
    June 14, 2011 at 4:23 am

    Lesley, thank you for this post. I was quite astonished too when I first saw this information few days ago. When researching the topic further, I found another interesting example of Jewish basketball player Naama Shafir (link below).

    I wonder what really lies at the core of this issue. Firstly, we have Western world with its rather strict separation between religion and public life. Since the West has a lot of power over many spheres of international public life it enforces this value of separation on many various parties, being it Iranian footballers or Jewish basketball players. What is important I guess, is that in modern Christianity there is less artifacts which could be affected by such separation so we can accept it easier. But is not it a very effect of centuries-long separation in the first place? Secondly, we have cultures for which such separation is a very unusual concept due to completely different role religion plays in their societies. It seems that the West has no proper understanding of this role and those societies. Is not it the deficiency of modern understanding of cosmopolitanism – us, the West, imposing our values on other cultures in the name of vaguely understood human rights?

    Here is a link to the story: http://www.jpost.com/Sports/Article.aspx?id=224734

  6. Piotr Rozwalka says:
    June 14, 2011 at 4:30 am

    Here is a great picture of the Iranian footballers taken after they heard the decision, I reckon: http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/254284_10150651695560657_805115656_19225931_1960693_n.jpg

  7. Anon says:
    August 19, 2011 at 1:15 am

    Pity..they look so cool.
    I thought diversity and inclusiveness was at the heart of international sport.

  8. Noura says:
    December 1, 2011 at 9:08 pm

    “They have to be the coolest ones ever. They’re like speed-skaters’ hoods, and the players look like white-clad ninjas. I’ll bet they can move like ninjas too. Clearly FIFA has no sense of style.” made my day. & by his sex trafficking remark, were you trying to imply that he’s a “consumer”? Cuz I just made a nasty connection. After all, if he’s not a “consumer”, then where do the thousands of trafficked persons go to instead if a Fifa head?

Anti-Sleaze

Posted May 29th, 2011 by Lesley Hazleton

Is Reza Aslan considering a run for political office?  This recent TEDx talk sure sounds like it.

Aslan wrote the best-selling ‘No God But God,‘ by far the most readable introduction to the history of Islam, and his recent anthology of 20th-century Middle East literature, ‘Tablet & Pen,’ is a fixture on my bedside table.

Like any good politico, he starts out all rosy-eyed.  Bear with him.  He draws clear parallels between prejudice in the U.S. against Jews and against Catholics — both groups seen at one time as un-American, foreign, “other” — and the current politically manipulated wave of Islamophobia.  And he draws the clear conclusion:  anti-Muslim zealots are so angry because they know they’re on the losing side of American history.

As they say in the Middle East, “from your lips to God’s ears.”

See what you think:

[youtube=http://youtu.be/VgLAzwgizdk]

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File under: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, US politics | Tagged: Tags: American Muslims, Catholics, diversity, Islamophobia, Jews, No God But God, Reza Aslan, Tablet & Pen, TEDxConejo | 1 Comment
  1. Philip says:
    June 5, 2011 at 8:56 am

    Canada has a similar “story” and yet we do not have the extreme anti immigrant attitudes in the mainstream culture. Canada was more like the United States before we became officially bilingual and multicultural. This changed the narative somewhat such that we believe multi-culturalism and multi-linguistic skills are positive values. We are eager to embrace them so they can enrich the Canadian story, Of course, such “stories” are also cultural myths. We know that the newcomers which we accept as adding to the cultural mix will in the end have children that will embrace the Canadian culture more than than their parents culture. They will speak English or French, learn to love hockey and maybe even learn to appreciate the Queen. They will also accept abortion as a necessary medical procedure, same sex marriage as a right, and oppose the death penalty, etc. The wider Canadian culture will come to enjoy the rich variety of ethnic celebrations and even embrace them. Such as this year the Bollywood awards are being held in Toronto and not India. The parliament of Canada allows the carrying of the kirpan in its chambers. Slowly visible minorities appear “normal” on radio and TV news shows They are increasingly becoming members of parliament. Sikhs and Muslims and those of African and Asian origin are achieving positions of influence. There is little or no comment or concern over this. In fact the current Conservative government won a majority because it sought out the “ethnic vote”. They were criticized for being so blatant about it.

    Canada is moving quicker and with more grace to be transformed by the current wave of immigrants, which we know we need economically, than the United States. The result is a more liberal culture with less strife.

Sleaze

Posted May 27th, 2011 by Lesley Hazleton

File this under Annals of Ugliness.  And have paper towels handy to wipe off the sleaze if you watch it.

It’s Dutch über-racist Geert Wilders at a ‘Christian’ megachurch in Nashville, TN, getting standing O’s for tripe like “Muhammad was a terrorist worse than Bin Laden ever was” and “If Jerusalem falls, Nashville falls.”  Which makes me think that if this is Nashville, its fall might be a thing much to be desired.  And that with friends like this, Israel needs no enemies.

Transcript follows, courtesy of Loonwatch:

[youtube=http://youtu.be/ToIBXT9U_Yo]

Geert Wilders: “Its Islam Stupid (raucous applause). We must stop the Islamization of our countries, more Islam means less freedom”…”And now, now Europe is looking slowly but gradually like Arabia”…”It was the land of our fathers, it is our land now, it is our values, our values are based on Christianity, Judaism and Humanism and not Islam, it is that simple (applause)”…”and I have a message for all those people who want to rob us from our freedoms, and my message is stay in your own country (loud applause)”…”we are not going to allow Islam to steal our country from us (applause)”…”if Jerusalem falls, Athens, Rome, Amsterdam and Nashville will fall therefore my point is we all are Israel (applause)”…”the only place where Christians are safe in the Middle East is that beautiful country called Israel (loud applause)”…”Make no mistake, please make no mistake, Islam is also coming to America, in fact Islam already is in America. America is facing a stealth jihad, the Islamic attempt to introduce Sharia’ law bit by bit”…”what we need my friends, what we need to turn the tide is a spirit of resistance, what we need I repeat it again is a spirit of resistance”…”we must repeat it over and over again, especially to our children, our Western values and culture based on Christianity and Judaism is better and superior to the Islamic culture (applause), and leaders who talk about immigration without mentioning Islam are blind (applause)”…”we must stop the immigration from non-Western countries and we must forbid the construction of new hate palaces called mosques (applause)”…”the press calls it an Arab spring, I call it unfortunately an Arab winter (applause), Islam and freedom, Islam and democracy are incompatible (applause)”…”the so called Prophet Muhammad was a terrorist worse than Bin Laden ever was (applause)”…”neutrality my friends, neutrality in the face of evil is evil itself (applause).”

I’d say that Wilders should stay in his own country, but that’s not fair to the Dutch.  So Harold Camping, where are you now that we need you?  Could you please arrange for this scumbag to be Raptured?

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File under: Christianity, Islam, ugliness | Tagged: Tags: Bin Laden, Cornerstone Church, Geert Wilders, Harold Camping, Islamophobia, Israel, Jerusalem, Muhammad, Nashville, racism | 3 Comments
  1. Rabeeh Zakaria says:
    May 27, 2011 at 1:23 pm

    A quick recipe for success:

    If you are a woman, having a Middle Eastern origin, then just write a fictitious book about the “crazy” muslim traditions and how suppressed you were.

    If you are a westerner then become a preacher: Twist reality and attach terrorism with Islam and attack a full nation… It’s also easy

    We Muslims are unfortunately the guilty ones. We have a very few “International” Muslim raw models (Hamza Yusuf is one).

    We need to show the world more how good Islamic teachings are and how lovely Islam is.

  2. AJ says:
    May 29, 2011 at 10:08 am

    This sickness and perversion may become mainstream….The fear is viable.

  3. Philip says:
    June 5, 2011 at 9:09 am

    It is past time that the United States passed laws against hate speech, Virtually all other western democracies have such laws. Free speech has limits even in American (Try calling for the assassination of the President and see who comes calling and who will stand up and defend your free speech). In Canada, it was felt necessary to warn Ann Coulter, when she came to Canada and spread her nutty ideas, that we have laws against hate speech, She of course, was outraged that we did not have “free speech” in Canada. I am glad we do not. Hate speech is just a form of libel against a group or an individual . I believe the United states has libel laws. Laws against hate speech would help to lower the tone of political and social discourse.

    It is a testament to the Dutch patience that they tolerate Wilders. Of course, he is being halled into court even in the Netherlands. He is dangerous. Germany learned its lesson. It has very strong laws against neo-Nazi hate speech,

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