The twentieth century will be remembered by history as the era of the tyranny of man-made religion. National Socialism, ethnic nationalism, fascism, and communism have already come and gone so quickly that one is surprised by the “great minds” that seem to be stuck in these political cul de sacs and dead ends. It also exposes the lie of western civilization, in fact there have been successive convulsions of Western civilization, each less civilized than the last. When the current crop of “conservative” insta-pundits coo about the revival of faith-based conservatism, Muslims should turn it over and look for the use by date.
This has not stopped some Muslims amongst us from sampling the latest flavour on the menu; postmodernism in philosophy. Whilst a good definition of PoMo is lacking, this is probably due to the ambiguity of the concept itself. There are however, some features that postmodernists can (reluctantly) agree on:
- A belief that truth of reality cannot exist beyond its characterization in culture, language and context of the perceiver, ie that there is no absolute truth beyond our perception of it, which is itself entirely subjective;
- Meta-narratives of cultures and societies are little more than crude systems of social control and therefore must be resisted;
- All endeavors of personal expression and proclamation are equally valid (not exactly part of PoMo, but appears to be an unavoidable consequence);
- That there is no meaning (or more correctly there is no way of knowing meaning or truth) or that there are infinite equally valid meanings (nihilism or its variants).
Postmodernism in art and architecture can be refreshing, playful and it has its unique aesthetic but as a philosophical system, it holds grave flaws for Muslims. It is not a political or social system but rather a fundamental epistemological construct. Other religions, notable revivalist Protestant movements in Christianity have already altered their belief and normative practice in light of this philosophical system, so that just about any behavior can be “for Jesus (AS)”. This leads adults to jump about the wrecked shell of a car, bashing it with sledgehammers, whilst screaming that they are feeling Jesus’s (AS) love flow through them. Whilst this may provide cheap family friendly amusement for Muslims, I would rather discuss similar movements in our community.
One would think that a religion centered on an absolute belief in radical monotheism would be immune from such deconstruction, but one can never underestimate the profundity of ignorance in the contemporary Islamic experience. There are several movements amongst contemporary Muslims groups that suggest that whilst they maybe unaware of the tenets of the philosophy that they subscribe to, they are nonetheless its disciples.
The “Grass Roots” concept here in Australia highlights the discordant synthesis of normative practice of orthodox muslims and hip hop culture. The latter is a social movement centered around loud ugly music, personal proclamation and antisocial behavior. Hip hop culture contains noxious strains of anti-woman imagery and rhetoric, drug taking and public sexual expression through music, all of which have nothing in common with Muslim belief and practice. That one could possibly conceive of a relationship between the two only demonstrates post modernism at its most preposterous. Thus, squirming about, impersonating a drug dealer or social misfit becomes a valid expression or even a celebration of one’s Islamic identity. The hijab, worn by muslim women as a barrier and sign of personal piety is reduced to a stage prop in this theater of the absurd. Segregation of the sexes does not mitigate the message that official sanction gives such an event.
The final point that needs to be made is the very ironic title of the project “Grass Roots”. It appears to be anything but an expression of authentic community sentiment or aspirations for the ummah’s children. I cannot think of meeting any muslim, parent or child in the last decade who has felt that what the community was lacking was a “robot girl” or “sammie D”. This is especially true of the comedian, Akmal Saleh.
The criticism is not directed purely at one event but rather at the philosophy that underscores it. We also have a nightclub set up by elements within the Turkish community, who feel that it is preferable for teenagers of Turkish origin to mingle “in a Muslim environment” then to do so in the wider community. In Adelaide there was a Masjid (mosque) with a liquor license where the Bosnian community would go to pray Jumma and then drink themselves under the plastic tables, all the while lamenting the Serbian war against the Muslim identity of their shared homeland.
This type of activity has usually been dismissed by orthodoxy as merely an example of religious ignorance or indulgence, but its prevalence worldwide suggests other assumptions are made about the nature of religious truth. It is not without accident that this type of thinking flourishes in Australia, where authentic Islamic scholarship is largely absent and Islamic “activists” then take it upon themselves to revitalize Islam by using little more than the genius of their own minds.
I can understand the sentiment that one wishes to attract the young to Islam using something that is already attractive to them, but this is a flawed strategy, Yvonne Ridley’s excessively harsh but nonetheless accurate depiction of the “Nasheed concert” phenomenon, higlights the risks. It reminds of an investigation I read in Mother Jones about the techniques used by covert Christian missionaries in Sudan. One would invite the faithful Muslims to his home after the Jumma and drink Coke and discuss Christianity but after several years of this fruitless secret proselytizing he realized that they had only come for the cola.
One does not need to embroider Islamic normative practice with something that is antithetical to it, in order to make it appealing to the lowest common denominator in our community. If one wishes to encourage Islamic observance, then it is best to do so, by actually observing it, and not celebrating something entirely different. Rather than this occasion, a better example for Muslim children would have been for them to spend the money and time with the Melbourne City Mission, who care for the homeless in the middle of a chilly Victorian winter. It is authentically an Islamic activity, it would teach those aspects of our faith that are sadly lacking in Muslim children, by demonstrating compassion, and encouraging selfless behavior.
Those who live their life by the axioms of PM philosophy should remember the trajectory of one of its greatest thinkers. Michel Foucault was one of the high priests of this movement who embraced the Islamic revolution in Iran, spending time with Khomeini before moving to the west coast of the US where he immersed himself in a homosexual subculture before dying of AIDS.
Personal psychic oscillation (as in the case of Foucault) appears to be a necessary feature of this philosophy which finally claimed his life and should serve as prescient warning to post modern muslims.
12 comments ↓
Shit, Baybers!
I do admire your intellect, and you really can write, but honestly!
What exactly is this “authentic” Islam which you hanker after? I put “authentic” in scare quotes not because I have any truck with the intellectual sludge of post-modernism, but because I am an antrhopological realist and believe that any human construct will evolve and change according to the pressures of time and place. Your “true” Islam will likely look quite different from mine. And unless you have a hotline to Allah set up, I’m not sure you’re in a position to pass judgement.
And you end your piece with what seems to be anti-homosexual remarks. Yuck. I am not a post-modernist if I believe that Allah is great - so great that I - or any other human, for that matter - can never understand him or his creation, I cannot condemn between one and ten percent of the population for their sexual orientation, as they too are part of creation and cause others no harm. Just because some texts might instruct me in some ways does not necessitate that I adhere. And I guarantee that you, no matter how devout, do not adhere to every letter either, because such adherence is impossible - too much contradiction, for one thing.
You know, there’s little quite so post-modern as religion.
perhaps it was very foolish of me to think that I could explain post modernist deconstruction of religion better than a disciple of pomo could by actually demonstrating it.
but sometimes you just get lucky.
Thank you Lala for demonstrating post modernism better than I could explain it.
ouch! Lala you walked into that one
great post with the post modern stuff, couldn’t agree more
you guys have an impressive site
I do not think there is necessarily any contention between the canon of Islamic law revealed to Muhammad (saw) 1,400 years ago and ‘anthropological realism’. It is, of course, true, as you point out, that societies evolve and difference issues and pressures come to bear on religion. For example, technological progress now forces us to confront the issues of abortion or stem-cell research and understand what is the correct Islamic position on each; and we now face the unprecedented situation of huge numbers of Muslims living as minorities in Western societies which raises all sorts of issues for Muslims.
Despite all these changes, it has been possible for scholars to formulate Islamic positions on these issues without deviating from the principles that were established 1,400 years ago when the religion was revealed. For example, although abortion did not exist at the time as a surgical procedure, we do know the point at which the soul enters the foetus and also that one should adopt the lesser of two evils in cases of dire necessity. Therefore, it has been possible for contemporary Islamic scholars to conclude that late-term abortion is permissable in order to save the life of the mother if it is known or most likely that giving birth will lead to her death. This is an ‘authentic Islamic’ position because it remains true to the spirit and letter of the law revealed to Muhammad.
Of course, particularly with these new issues, there may not be a consensus on what is the authentic Islamic position on the matter. There are, for example, differences of opinion as to whether the ‘morning after’ pill can be used in the first few weeks after conception or whether stem cell research is allowed. That isn’t a problem because Islam can tolerate these sorts of differences — provided, of course, that the differences occur between parties that are both seeking to reach the truth by referencing Islamic texts and applying Islamic law properly and sincerely.
An ‘unauthentic Islamic position’ would therefore be if someone was to decide that, to take an extreme example, bestiality was permissable under Islamic law because he had read Peter Singer’s arguments that there are no moral reasons to oppose inter-species sexual relations. In this case, the person is making no reference to any Islamic text nor applying any of the formulas specified in Islamic law to derived a ruling on the issue. Unfortunately, this is the trap that many so-called ‘reformists’ have fallen into: instead of constraining behaviour by Islam, they argue that Islam should be constrained by the political and intellectual fads of the moment. For example, they might argue that although the Qu’ran permits polygamy, the fact that such relationships are no longer acceptable in Western societies demands that we revise or reinterpret these verses to make polygamy unlawful.
“Your “true” Islam will likely look quite different from mine.”
This is the quintessential post modern argument, that something cannot exist independent of one’s interpretation of it.
There is a true Islamic position on just about every matter, indeed there may be several true or authentic Islamic positions on a single matter. These can be judged by their fidelity to the intents and purposes of Sharia and methodological logic of their derivation.
What varies is ones ability or willingness to acknowledge them. I am not interested in foisting “My islam” as you characterize it onto anyone, but I will critique practices and and beliefs, that I can find no legitimate religious pedigree for (spiritual, textual or methodological).
assalamu alaykum
Can there be a critique of those who we identify as postmodernists, without considering modernist aims and objectives? Postmodernism is not necessarily a direct attack on pre-modern notions of faith or traditional religion, but a critique of the “narrative” of modernism (largely about “progress”) and its methodologies and tools (rationality, objectivity).
wasalam
waleikum Assalam,
May Allah give you from what is greater
You have of course, got to the heart to the matter. The title of the piece should have been more correctly “post-modernist influences on contemporary Islam” as the term “modern” is itself loaded with meaning.
I did want to do another essay on the concept of “progress” and its roots in the sterility of modernism, but judged it too esoteric for this place. Modernist movements in Islam have already begun to fragment, (example Hizbul Tahrir) and thankfully so.
You are correct when you say that post modernist thought is not necessarily an attack on traditional religion, but post modern society appears to be. We live in a world where even neo-conservatism is in fact faux post modernism in drag. Conservative movements are as absurd, arbitrary and essentially meaningless po-mo constructs.
The contemporary experience with Islam is that it is under “deconstruction” by po-mo epistemology, almost always by those unaware of what tools they are playing with. In islam it is the pre-modern Islamic “narrative” and its methodologies that are under such scrutiny.
(I use the shorthand “Islam” do denote the supra-culture of the Islamic world, its four traditional madhabs, their various reform movements and the instruments such as sharia used for their preservation).
I really appreciate the effort that you have gone to with your very thoughtful comment
Jazak ullah kharun
as-salaam alaykum. thanks for the post. i just came across the site, and am dutifully impressed with the project you all have undertaken. i am also sympathetic to the post because i share your uneasiness about contemporary (mis)understandings of islam.
while your more general remarks about postmodernist ‘tenets’ are useful, i wonder if more could be said on how exactly these influences can be traced to contemporary muslim groups. i think the turkish and bosnian community examples are unfair, for example, and really have no conscious link with postmodernist philosophy. you might say that they are postmodernist ‘in effect if not in intent’, as it were, but that’s not saying much at all. why not just say that these communities are ignorant of the islamic tradition (that the communities in question are turkish and bosnian should be telling)?
perhaps you mean, rather, that the influence of postmodernism has produced a cultural vocabulary such that, when various muslim groups justify their actions and activities, they rely on buzzwords that are prevalent in contemporary culture but are not compatible with the islamic tradition. this, i think, would be a more defensible claim. it would also fit with what you say about “Islamic ‘activists’” who “take it upon themselves to revitalize Islam by using little more than the genius of their own minds” (of course, such a critique would apply to a much wider swathe than just progressive muslims.)
i look forward to subsequent posts on this subject.
This is an interesting discussion.
It would also be useful for someone to explore how the form of itjihad being promoted by some of the Muslim world’s self-styled reformists and Muslim refuseniks is influenced by postmodernist methods. It seems to me that what some of these people call itjihad is really just deconstructionism applied to the Qu’ran. For example, this idea that much of what Muslims have always considered divine revelation must be now be seen as simply the product of a paticular cultural framework (pre-modern Quraishi Arabs) open to contemporary (and radical) reinterpretation and redefinition. Whilst it is, of coure, true that it is necessary to understand something of the history and culture of the time to know why certain rulings or events arose in revelation, the criticism of these contemporary reformists seems predicated more on a rejection of the objectivity of truth.
ABD, we were just discussing your very point the other day. Perhaps I am guilty of giving the bosnian and turkish examples an intellectual cover that they do not warrant, but in all three cases I think that these movements are to some extent unintentional.
We were going to discuss this further in another post on Islamic education, if i ever get around to it.
You reference to language is also interesting and correct. Contemporary society’s cultural lexicon is limited to slogans such as “war on terror, moderate muslim, Islamic fundamentalist, jihadist etc…” Muslims then use the linguistic “cards” dealt to them. Unfortunately they then adopt a persona or philosophy accordingly. islamic “fundamentalists” then develop forms of cultural or religious ostentation (but continue to work at a bank, or spend extravagantly or submerge in therapy culture) whilst modernists sit around sipping lattes, awarding themselves “Ibdn Rusd awards” for islamic cleverness and remarking at their own intelligence and “kewlness”
I also agree that Islam’s neo-liberal bright young things are not the only post modernists among us, Al Qaida et al are a striking examples of post modernist deconstruction of Islam.
Slavoj Zizek’s assessment that it is “mac-world” vs “mac jihad” is spot on.
ABD
My apologies for forgetting my manners and not returning your Salaam and congratulating you on your superb website.
In such company, there is very little of any worth that I can add.
May Allah reward you
Amir,
I think that deconstruction is at center of the post modern “progressive” muslim critque of tradtional Islam. I did not want to discuss it directly as it would involve naming names.
I don’t think we need to do that now that the whole proggie thing has imploded.
link:http://pmunadebate.blogspot.com/2005/07/muqtedar-khans-resignation-letter.html
what is remarkable is that even as the high priests of one’s religion jump ship the little people still keep rowing, blissfully unaware.
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