Ramadan, Day 12: Facing the Ugly - Part 1
Assalamalykum, friends.
I can't promise this will be the easiest post to read. Because tonight I'm not in the mood to be optimistic. Tonight I want to be fiercely difficult about examining our own flaws. If you read this though, I hope you'll derive some food for thought. But if you don't want to read ugly, it's okay. You can turn back now.
The inspiration for tonight's post comes from a book I happened upon in the library - it simply caught my eye as I was walking through the library, and I grabbed it. The book is called Modern Arab American Fiction: A Reader's Guide, by Steven Salaita. In that book, I read a chapter that discusses Mohja Kahf's "The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf." In his discussion of the novel, Salaita notes that Kahf does not shy away from discussing the dark side of Muslim communities, noting that "racism does not exist simply against Muslims by whites. Muslims are multi-ethnic...and these groups are not themselves in complete unity." (34)
One of the things that I have always loved about Islam is that it is inclusive and welcomes people from all different walks of life. When we put our head down in the ground in prayer, it doesn't matter if you are the poorest homeless beggar, the billionaire CEO of a large multi-national or the leader of a country - we are all still equal before God. I've found that more often than not, people tend to be welcoming of new people into their mosques, and we all join together in our worship. Yet even as we do that, I find that we have a terrible tendency to judge people by their background. It's not that we actively exclude people, but sometimes we believe that other Muslims are different from us in some way because they are black, or Arab, or South Asian, or white. And that scares me a little bit. While on the public level, we are admiring a person's faith, sometimes we are subconsciously making judgments based on their race.
Unfortunately, this appears to be a cultural relic. Speaking from a level of personal experience, I find that when I go to Pakistan, people can be incredibly racist. In the United States, much of the racism has been washed away (or at least hidden) through exposure to a culture that demands that we treat others equally and think of others as equals. But I haven't only seen this in Pakistan. I've seen it in Dubai and South Asia, where Arabs are openly distrustful of people from South Asia. I've seen it even in a largely secular Turkey, where some feel that Arabs are ignorant pigs. I've seen it in Shi'a and Sunni communities, where both communities feel that the other community is full of nonbelievers. This is fortunately not universal. In the educated classes, it is much less common. But, as Muslims, it is our job to try and ensure that we can all aspire to a higher degree of tolerance.
So, if you're still with me at this point. Try and find racism wherever you live. It may be inside you. It may be outside you. But we can stand to do better. God has only commanded us to do so.
Works Cited
Salaita, S. (2011). Modern arab-american fiction: A reader's guide. (pp. 32-41). Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.