Iktimal Hage-Ali, an Alawi (or Nusayriyya as they are often termed in the classical Islamic texts) member of the now defunct Muslim Community Reference Group (MCRG), has been nominated as Young Australian of the Year.
After being nominated for the award in recognition of her supposed contributions to relations between Muslims and non-Muslims, she drank some alcohol to celebrate. Some Muslims are outraged.
Iktimal Hage-Ali, 22, has been targeted on Muslim websites for drinking alcohol and declining to wear the traditional hijab.
Her anonymous attackers condemned her after she drank the champagne to toast her award at the NSW Art Gallery last Thursday.
“It’s true, I was celebrating. Bloody hell, I had a glass of champagne in my hand – so what?” Ms Hage-Ali told The Daily Telegraph yesterday.
When somebody that has been held up by the media and politicians as a representative of Islam and Australian Muslims drinks alcohol in public and then scoffs at the reaction from the community she ostensibly represents, it’s understandable why some Muslims would be annoyed.
However, Ms Hage-Ali is an Alawi and so this is hardly surprising. The drinking of alcohol isn’t prohibited in their religion and even forms the basis of some of their religious ceremonies. As Daniel Pipes writes, Alawis seem closer to Christianity than Islam in this regard:
Some ‘Alawi doctrines appear to derive from Phoenician paganism, Mazdakism and Manicheanism. But by far the greatest affinity is with Christianity. ‘Alawi religious ceremonies involve bread and wine; indeed, wine drinking has a sacred role in ‘Alawism, for it represents God. The religion holds ‘Ali, the fourth caliph, to be the (Jesus-like) incarnation of divinity. It has a holy trinity, consisting of Muhammad, ‘Ali, and Salman al-Farisi, a freed slave of Muhammad’s. ‘Alawis celebrate many Christian festivals, including Christmas, New Year’s, Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost , and Palm Sunday. They honor many Christian saints: St. Catherine, St. Barbara, St. George , St. John the Baptist, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Mary Magdalene. The Arabic equivalents of such Christian personal names as Gabriel, John, Matthew, Catherine, and Helen, are in common use. And ‘Alawis tend to show more friendliness to Christians than to Muslims.
For these reasons, many observers-missionaries especially-have suspected the ‘Alawis of a secret Christian proclivity. Even T. E. Lawrence described them as “those disciples of a cult of fertility, sheer pagan, antiforeign, distrustful of Islam, drawn at moments to Christianity by common persecution.” The Jesuit scholar Henri Lammens unequivocally concluded from his research that “the Nusayris were Christians” and their practices combine Christian with Shi’i elements.
Therefore, it is unreasonable to criticise an Alawi woman for acting in accordance with her own faith. Rather, Muslims should simply clarify the extent to which the Alawi faith is representative of normative Islamic ideas and practices and, based on that, the extent to which Ms Hage-Ali can rightly be seen as a representative of Islam or Muslims.
Of course, we can’t expect journalists to know these things or to have much of an interest in understanding them. Therefore, it’s not surprising that the Daily Telegraph dedicates not one, not two, not three but four articles today to defending Hage-Ali’s drinking. Strangely, they go so far as to hold up a willingness to drink alcohol as a sign of moderate Islam.
For example, journalist Luke McIlveen offers this in an op-ed:
To her credit, Iktimal told The Daily Telegraph yesterday she had enjoyed a drink in the past and probably would again.
It’s appalling that, in 2006, a young Muslim woman who has done so much for her community should be vilified for behaving like an Australian.
And then the editor of the paper weighs into the debate with this editorial:
In fact, she is a genuine representative of moderate Islam, speaking gently of her faith in an Australian accent. That extremists would shout her down for such offences as wearing make-up and sipping champagne identifies them as shockingly out of touch with not just moderate Islam but every aspect of modern Australia.
Columnist Piers Akerman goes further. When a person points out that Islam prohibits alcohol, Akerman responds:
Even that is questionable, the Koran has typically contradictory passages, and historically Muslims have used alcohol. In the so-called Golden Years of Islam. Perhaps they all need to get back on the booze.
If the Daily Telegraph think drinking alcohol is a sign of a good, moderate Muslim then I suspect they will find that the problem of ‘extremism’ is far worse than even they ever imagined.
25 comments ↓
To be blunt, many of the journalists and commentariat have trouble in identifying the differences between the various Christian churches and sects that form the more common religious background in Australia.
A patient letter to the editor may have an effect, though – but I would not hold my breath for a learned reaction. The search for ilm may not carry the same weight in journalism as it does in the sunnah.
thank you for an interesting post – I appreciate you don’t necessarily blog for non Muslim-readers but I am getting a lot out of the site in general.
Does the government actually understand how ridiculous it looks to the Islamic community when it throws its support behind such people and expects the Muslims to be grateful?
I know Muslims that drink, and not one of them tries to convince me that it is halal or that they are “moderate Muslims” but rather that they are weak and know that they are corrupt and one day hope to change their ways.
I could not really care less that she drinks, she could spend her weekends at the pub for all I care, she could of stood up there naked for all I care. But to claim to represent the wider Islamic community, to try to justify drinking alcohol whilst doing so is just pathetic.
The point here is not what the Federal government understand or not. I bet that they do know all the fault-lines in the Arab community between Allawis and Muslims, they just don’t care.
Setting up the MRC was about power and about powerlessness. Whilst we cannot organise ourselves to the point of having a political voice, the government has the imprimatur of the majority to do as it wishes with the Muslim community.
She is not representing the Muslim community, she was never elected or supported by anyone. Her elevation as a Muslim representative is purely by those elements in the wider community who dislike us.
I am surprised, that she is the only person of another faith on the Muslim commission, I’m not sure why they didn’t add a Zoroastrian, a Buddhist a Mormon or a Satan-worshipper to round it off.
To be fair there are many “mainstream” Muslim spokespeople who are guilty of the the two evils of shameless self promotion and of speaking (or writing ) beyond the capacity of their tiny brains to the gauge impact of their words.
As a small note, I should add that the allawi “religion” believes that women are created without souls and thus should have no access to religious knowledge. Its fortunate for them that Howard regards them as “moderates”. because that makes one person who does.
In this context, If I was an Allawi women, like this person, I would be hitting the (govt paid) piss too, before the resources led boom is over the govt starts to watch its public expenditure.
It’s been a bad year for Alawis.
I get the feeling that the since the media is making it a case to defend this woman, that there is something agenda even if it is small.
The American Jewish Congress gave their “Profiles in Courage: Voices of Muslim Reformers in the Modern World” award to five people this year. Two are self-professed atheists and one that converted to Christianity.
I can appreciate that some Muslims are offended that a Muslim “representative” would drink in public. I can appreciate dismay at the newspaper articles that got it so wrong.
What I fail to understand is this eagerness among some (loud) Muslims to takfir anyone who doesn’t fit oh so nicely into their box of muslimness. Iktimal Hage-Ali says she is a Muslim. She is therefore a Muslim. If you disagree with anything she has to say you have every right to stand up and state your opinion, but please, easy on the takfir.
“Whilst we cannot organise ourselves to the point of having a political voice, the government has the imprimatur of the majority to do as it wishes with the Muslim community.
She is not representing the Muslim community, she was never elected or supported by anyone. Her elevation as a Muslim representative is purely by those elements in the wider community who dislike us.”
Paranoia!
You have to be elected and supported to be a member of the ummah now? The shahada isn’t enough anymore? And which Muslim community is she meant to be representing exactly? The authentic one with the Baybers stamp of approval? Please!
As-Salaamu ‘alaikum everyone,
“null”: actually, a Muslim is someone who fulfils the criteria of being a Muslim, which is to believe in One God, Allah, and that Muhammad, sall’ Allahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, is His Messenger – and all that this entails. This is, of course, the sticking point, because there have been many people who parrot the Two Testimonies and then reject things the Prophet (sall’ Allahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) told us, such as that he is the last prophet rather than the latest in a long line.
The ‘Alawis don’t fit the criteria, so they are not Muslim, and for this woman to pretend to represent us and to be a “moderate Muslim” in an attempt to cast aspersions on the rest of us is dishonesty. The fact that they have Arabic names and look like Muslims to outsiders doesn’t make them Muslims, anymore than it makes the Nation of Islam and its absurd racist theology Muslim.
Alawis have only recently started calling themselves Muslim. Up until the French entered Sham, they were called Nusayri but the French gave them the name Alawi (which they accepted) in order to reduce tensions. Then, in 1973, when Hafez Asad came to power in Syria he faced the constitutional problem that only Muslims could lead the country. For most of their history, the Alawis had considered themselves a seperate religion to Islam so he faced a small hurdle. Asad managed to find a Shi’i imam called Musa as-Sadr, from Lebanon, who gave him a fatwa that the Alawis were a sect (albeit deviated one) of Shi’ism. Since then, the Ba’athist Alawi leadership of Syria has been promoting the “Alawis are Muslim” line for obvious reasons (it makes sense when you are lording over a Sunni majority). However, up until recently, the Alawis themselves would have been the first people to say they were not Muslim (as the Ottomans found out when they tried to build mosques for Alawi communities and they transformed them into barns and stables for their animals)
Musa as-Sadr, he is the man that started up Hizbullah isn’t he?
From what I know the Nusayri’s do not even have the same Shahada as Muslims. My uncle is a Ja3fari Shia from what he has told me of the Allawis he has come across their shahada is “I testify that there is no deity but Allah and I testify that in truth Ali is Allah”.
And from what we know about their belief it completely clashes with Islam.
Null this isn’t a case of making takfir on someone that has committed a minor sin. Even a person drinking alcohol cannot be declared a kaffir.
Null,
the MRG was created by a non Muslim conservative govt whose members and leader have regularly attacked Muslims, this is a fact and is not paranoia.
And yes anyone who claims to represent the Muslims must be elected to that position, so I presume she must get the seal of approval from Baybers and many other influential muslims
IS she in fact an Alawi? I know that she has been accused of being an Alawi but I haven’t hear HER say so. Similarly, I haven’t heard HER claim to represent Muslims.
The infighting and misinformation in the Muslim community (at least that portion of it active on some forums) is pretty scary.
From the ABC:
Well, are you saying that she IS an Alawi becaue she was at the meeting, but that she ‘ISN’T a voice for young Muslims’ because she wasn’t elected?
My point stands – I haven’t heard her say it.
She is an Alawi. On 23rd August, 2005 she gave an interview to Jennifer Fleming on ABC 702 Sydney (at approximately 1:53pm). In this interview, she said she was an Alawi and that she had attended the Muslim Youth Summit in her capacity as a representative of the Alawi religion.
I don’t think she has said she is a representative of Muslims or Muslim youth. But that’s not the point because she has stepped into this role and that is how the media and politicians are portraying her. They have the misconception that she is a Muslim and can have an influence in our community, and she is taking advantage of that misconception.
She is commenting on Islamic and Muslim community issues when in reality it is no more appropriate or valuable for her to be putting in her two cents than it is for Muslims to offer their opinions on Christian issues.
Jealousy is what I’m hearing.
Also, there really isn’t a ‘muslim community’, is there? It takes precious little for people to start saying ‘well, they aren’t real Muslims’. Not to mention Shia/Sunni stuff.
If there was an election for a representative would you even agree on who was allowed to vote?
Here is an interesting development.
The same article says that she was released without charge… let’s disclose everything instead of just the first few lines.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/nat.....29738.html
Looks like someone will be having a rather hard time in the near future. This is not good for us, regardless of our own opinion regarding her legitimacy.
Last week, they are pumping her up and this week they are tearing her down. I wonder whether they knew about this latest ‘controversy’ whilst they were promoting her last week? Anyway, as bad as this will be for her, I hope she (and the rest of us) learn an important lesson from this: the media giveth, and the media taketh away.
Both Dezhen and Amir make good points.
Even though the Islamic community never wanted her up there to begin with. We will still suffer the consequences from this.
At the end of the day the media is after a juicy story. And this is just too bursting to pass up. Even one of their own (anyone else read the blog entry?).
It was sort of relevant to the “Poisonous Sub Culture” article.
[...] Born in 1958 in the coastal town of Baniyas, Syria, Wafa Sultan grew up in a modest middle class Alawite family (important: for more about who the alawis are, and their relation to Islam, please click here). She attended the University of Aleppo where she majored in medical studies (source: wikipedia). [...]
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