Mamdani, Progressive Islam, and the Qunari: A Rambling Essay about the Western Perspective of Islam as a socio-religious force
Thinking about how I've experienced so much pushback in the past when I draw up the fact that both BioWare and the fandom has actively contributed to an Orientalist and Islamophobic understanding toward the Qunari and even Andraste, and how there definitely seems to be an ardent pushback against this idea by some areas of the fandom while maintaining the position that the inherent militarism and fanaticism of Par Vollen is inspired by the (both Arab and non-Arab, and generally Asian) Islamic powers of the Umayyad and 'Abbasid Caliphates, the Ottomans, Almoravids, and Golden Horde - but they are not supposed to be Islam, guys. Clearly that's Andraste.
But it's not really about Dragon Age that I'm thinking of right now. I'm thinking of the most recent mayoral election of Zohran Mamdani, and the consistent Islamophobic attacks made against him during and after his victory against Cuomo. Of course, I expect the comments from the far right of the political spectrum - claims that Mamdani would established "Sharia Law", that he would turn New York City into the "slums" of Uganda, etc. But also, not surprisingly, from the center and even left of the political spectrum. Claims that socialism, or downright progressive ideas, are incompatible with Mamdani's Islamic faith - ignoring, of course, that many of these liberals and leftist makes anachronistic claims about Jesus being a ardent socialist - while being completely ignorant of Islamic theology, and the diverse political, philosophical, and economical diversity within Islamic jurisprudence.
In many Western perspectives, "Shariah law" is something like the Constitution, a clear set of regulations and laws that are essentially immutable and stagnate - when in reality, like all social institutions, the implications and substance of what constitutes "Shariah law" existed in constant flux and change, influenced by pre-Islamic cultural and social developments, and resided heavily in the local circumstances in which it found itself in. Furthermore, different theological schools of thought and diverse sectarian groups viewed the matters of "Shariah law" differently, and across the millennia of Islam's existence, legal schools of thought actively interpreted and viewed similar established points so uniquely as to be another branching path of what is viewed as "Shariah". There was no hierarchical institution in which the Islamic powers that be could rely on to establish a coherent legislative corpus, as say the Christian Churches could do so, but rather the development of the Islamic ulema grew gradually and intermediate, not from the direction of the caliphal office in Damascus or Baghdad, but from individual groups engaging with and against one another (indeed, the 'Abassid Caliph al-Ma'mun despaired because he began to lose the unique position of religious authority the Umayyad Caliph enjoyed). As time went on, particularly under the 'Abbasids, these disparate groups coalesced into legal streams of thought, but again they differed from one another in views, philosophy, and jurisprudence, and they existed in different places at different times.
Which is why it is so ironic that the Qun exists in the way that they do, or how Mamdani or other Muslims are viewed in the lens of the political West. To them, the idea that a Muslim would be supportive of the LBGTQ is impossible - often as is the case, excuses are made; claims that Mamdani's support comes from a place of political expedience or coalition building rather than a truly held political belief is some of the reasons I've seen in comment sections or on the news regarding Mamdani's progressive platform. In a similar way, Muslim women who maintain feminist positions while adhering to the religious beliefs are infantilized as being oppressed by Islam as a faith rather than a source of their feminist perspective. To many in the West, Islam cannot be any of these things, because just like the Qunari - Islam to them as a monolith and unchanging. That the "true" Islam is following the supposed actions of a seventh century man rather than being another social institution that actively engages and transforms throughout the centuries. Other religious faiths - Christianity, Judaism, even Buddhism, are given that complexity, and are permitted to do so. Such a view is not offered to Islam or its practitioners. To many, individuals like Mamdani do not actually follow Islam, and instead lay all the supposed credentials on ultraconservative interpretations as the "true" Islam - rather than actively acknowledging that Wahabbism or Salafism are both 18th century reactionary developments whose rise was born from political developments within the Ottoman Empire than being some legacy left behind by the Prophet or his companions. Just as many Americans would push against the idea that Mormonism is the "true" Christianity with all its awareness of its 19th and 20th century influence, I would readily argue that the supposed claims that Salafism is the foundation of Islam is silly and ignorant. It was a response born to the material and social conditions of those societies in the modernization period of the Ottoman era, not something true related to Muhammad in any real historical sense.
And such we come back to the Qun and Mamdani. As I said before, there seems to be across the United States political spectrum this idea that Mamdani's political views are either aligned to completely undo the democratic principles of New York City - to establish a "Marxist-Islamic" society - or that socialism or progressivism is entirely opposed to Mamdani's religious beliefs as a Muslim. In a similar vein, the Qun cannot grow or develop outside the established strict coherence that BioWare choose to establish for them. The Qun to many in the fandom must always remain totalitarian and monolithic - while many like to point out the supposed acceptance of Krem's being as a trans man via the Aqun-Athlok compared to Taash's struggles in their nonbinary self related to the Qun, and how their struggles somehow change the lore of the Qun when the entire point is that the Qun that we meet throughout the game are a highly gendered society that broke no reinterperation of the gender binary line. Krem can be viewed as a man in the Par Vollen Qunari view because he is a warrior, not because his own psychological or biological views. Taash on the other hand does not fit either role - they are a warrior, which is a man's position. But they refuse to identify themselves as a man. Alongside the fact that I think many don't actively engage with Veilguard in any good conscience, I think many also ignore the inherent themes of the struggles of immigrants - something I have talked about in the past with how I connected to Taash, a cisgender man who feels at odds with the cultural inheritance of being an Afghan descent raised primarily in the United States - in Taash's story and hyper fixate on (admittedly poorly done) ending, despite the fact Tricks, rather than changing the lore of Dragon Age, ironically followed the established lore of the past games regarding the Qun being inflexible.
In a sort of reflective state, I cannot help but notice the treatment of Mamdani being similar to that of the Qunari in Dragon Age, and other treatments toward progressive Muslims in the past, both by conservative Muslims and Westerners alike. While it is expected from rabid traditionalist, conservatives, and fascists, I cannot help but be reside seeing many liberals and leftist relying on a conservative perspective of Islam being the de facto or "true" position - that progressive Muslims, feminist Muslims, or Islam itself cannot actually being anything close to progressive or socialism, despite the Qur'an's very clear communal demands on its practitioners.
It just...frustrating to see that so many in the Dragon Age fandom, as well as individuals alone, refuse to actually engage with Islam or other cultures in the non-Western "world", and acknowledge that their position was born from developments that took thousands of years, countless investigations, debates, and intellectual examinations, and that they are not inherently immalleable frameworks but living conditions reflected by the people existing in those systems right now. Islam can change, because it has constantly been in changed since the death of the Prophet! And yet, we see this view constantly espoused in both reality and in the fictional world that often regulates the Asian and African continents as inherently fixed societies that are unable to transform unless they adopt the beliefs and ideas of the West, and if someone like Mamdani maintains his faith, not as something that opposes his political views but enhances it, than he is simply misguided on principle about what his faith actually is; ignoring the complexity of Islamic faith on an individual and communal level.
Just like the Qun, to many in the West (and yes, even among traditionalist Muslim socieites) there cannot exist a "progressive" view of Islam. Just like many views on Islam, the Qun was shaped and born under that view Orientalist view that has not died away, no matter how much so many other progressives tried to argue. Ever time, it rears its ugly head - Palestinians are allowed to be genocide by Israel because "imagine if you were an LGBTQ+ person in Palestine", or that Mamdani will established new mosques on every corner in New York or that he is not actually a Muslim at all.
And just like those views on Islam, the Qunari share that same fate by the established lore of Dragon Age and by the fandom at large. That the idea of diversity of thought, complexity of humanity, does not exist and that they are all monolithic with no differing viewpoints and ideas. Not only is it an insult toward the Islamic world, but it is also an insult toward other philosophies and ideologies and religions many in the DA fandom had tried to utilize to excuse DA's Islamophobia - Buddhism is as diverse as Christianity and Judaism and Islam. The political thought of Marxism is as diverse as any other political theory or religious belief. Humans are naturally diverse. The Qunari and Muslims are henceforth reduced as being inhuman by all factors of the Westerner view, unless they disavow all essence of their ancestral culture or religious faith - unless they became entirely westernized, they cannot help but follow their animalistic urges that would demand the butchering of non-Muslims and the like. Islamophobia is not dead in the West - places like France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Germany readily displays that enough - so it must be an active push for us to actively point out and not so quickly dismiss the racism that resides in the clear inspirations of our favorite series, regardless if its DA or Baldur's Gate. Because, yes. These games have a history of racism and Orientalism, even before Veilguard's release.
