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  johnpi 11:58 am on November 6, 2009 | 39 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: American Muslim leaders (10), American Muslims (70), associating with Muslims (2), campus Muslims (2), conservative Muslims (7), gay muslims (11), mosque control (3), mosque leadership (3), mosques (38), muslim american (20), muslim american extremism (25), Muslim converts (7), Muslim dissidents (2), Muslim families (3), Muslim family life (3), muslim fanatics (18), Muslim feminists, Muslim Identity (2), Muslim Leaders, Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow (2), muslim liberals (7), Muslim Schools (8), Muslim unity (2), Muslim women (80), Muslim World (13), muslims condemn (3), Muslims in America (36), Muslims in Politics (5), peace activist Muslims (3), progressive muslims (6), western muslims (8)

  Interesting conversation I was having with another moderate Muslim.

  Her point: Mainstream/moderate American Muslims deserve the suspicion of our fellow Americans for having allowed this thing to grow among us that resulted in the violence at Fort Hood and other recent expressions of extremism, for shrinking back from mosque boards and private school committees when those of the puritanical strain among us take them over, for allowing ourselves to be put on the spot at mosque functions and social events instead of turning it around and not putting them on the spot.

  Agree or disagree?

   

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  johnpi 8:47 pm on October 11, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Feminism (26), feminists (5), Islamic feminism (9), Muslim feminism (8), Muslim feminists, women in Islam (22), women's rights (32), Women's Rights in Islam (9), women-led solutions (2)

  Feminists from the Arab World: Women’s issues and feminist movements are discussed by scholar-activists from Saudi Arabia and Egypt at the first-ever conference, “Arab Feminisms: A Critical Perspective” – organized by the Lebanese Association of Women Researchers, Bahithat.

  Excerpt of an interview with Professor Hatoon Ajwad Al Fassi from Saudi Arabia:

  Can you explain briefly what you talked about in your presentation – about how feminism in Saudi Arabia – or the non-existence of it, as you question – developed over the last decades, and what kinds of historical contexts shaped the feminism in question?

  Al Fassi: I don’t think there is a political movement called feminism in Saudi Arabia, there isn’t such a thing. My definition of [a feminist] is someone who has an awareness of her being as a woman, who has rights. I consider this as a feminist consciousness. That is a kind of feminism if you like. This happens on different levels: a level that is very leftist, very liberal that has extreme demands and others that are to the right – Muslims or Islamists who have extreme demands from our point of view…

  So when it comes to practical issues, extreme Islamist feminists think that personal status laws are untouchable because they have to do with the Islamic faith?

  Al Fassi: Yes… Or they would say that these laws are the right ones in Islam and that nobody should question them. But the question is their application. And this is something that we agree on… But they go into more details that we disagree with, such as [the fact] that they believe that women should not go to work unless they are very needy, that the priority should be to stay at home and that the man should always provide for the woman.

   
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  johnpi 10:22 am on September 11, 2009 | 7 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Faux Feminist Watch (8), Feminism (26), guardianship, Islamic feminism (9), Muslim feminism (8), Muslim feminists, saudi arabia (135)

  Over at Muslimah Media Watch Egyptian blogger Eman Hashim writes about the Saudi guardianship campaign being led by two Saudi princesses: “My guardian knows what’s best for me.” It is a campaign in support of the strict male guardianship laws in that country.

  Hashim is rebuked in the comments by other Muslimahs for her defense of women who choose or desire to live under male guardianship.

  However, Hashim is far more critical and uncompromising when she writes about women who choose to live within the dominant paternalistic paradigm on her own blog. In a review of a movie about the fight in America to get the vote for women, she favorably quotes this line: “Women like you are worse than anti-suffragists; you perpetuate the lie everyday at breakfast.”

  Then she lists her own complaints:

  My god! How many times have you met a woman who voluntarily declares her stupidity and ignorance just to get a man’s attention and approval?

  How many women have you talked to and they just faked inferiority to nourish a no-body guy just to get a proposal?

  How many places have you gone to where women refuse to get business done with other women cause “we are not as smart as men”?

  I know that a lot of my fellow doctors never went to a female doctor nor they ever intend to because “male doctors are cleverer”

  I know that women don’t like to go to electronic stores and deal with saleswomen cause “we just don’t understand technology!”

  I know my friends who resist any piece of information related to their laptops cause “guys just get these kinds of things not us.”

  She concludes her post:

  I am optimistic, I believe that someday we will be able to break those walls, that women will be that scared of being rejected by intimidated men, that women will not be ruled by what other want her to be, that women will not be scared to lead their lives, make their own choices, be ready for the consequences and live the beauty of a free life!

  I don’t understand why Hashim writes with one face at Muslimah Media Watch, and another when she writes for her own blog.

   
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  johnpi 11:32 am on August 1, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: al qaeda (93), Extremism (166), Feminism (26), Muslim feminism (8), Muslim feminists, Muslim-on-Muslim violence (76), Terrorism (397), violence (160)

  Related to the previous post, are extremist women like “Companion of Weapons” who wish to participate in al Qaeda violence the Muslim world equivalents of Laine Lawless, Shawna Forde, and Brandi Baron?

  A woman, who signed her name “Companion of Weapons,” added her support to a lengthy essay of protest online: “How many times have I wished I were a man… When Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahri said there are no women in al-Qaida, he saddened and hurt me.” She listened to the speech 10 times, and “felt that my heart was about to explode in my chest… I am powerless.” The stirrings of feminism are never limited to specific ideological groups, though they may never be labeled by the f-word.

  Apart from their desire for legitimate active engagement in the extremist movement, these women are insulted that their contributions, by way of a number of suicide bombings especially in Iraq, is not acknowledged. It would appear that al-Qaeda may be employing the services of women, but maintaining a male-exclusive front, as it were. The ideological statement, as is common, is for both the masses and for the Other. The statement offers the masses instruction so that the majority of women remain content with their domestic role.

  I’ve tagged this “Muslim-on-Muslim violence” because the majority of victims of extremist violence are other Muslims…

   
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  johnpi 8:12 pm on June 27, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Feminism (26), feminists (5), iran (364), Iranian elections (90), Islamic feminism (9), Muslim feminism (8), Muslim feminists, Muslim women (80), Muslim women in the media (15), neda (22)

  I’ve been struck by the way images of Neda specifically and Iranian women in general have been panned by self-identified Western Muslim feminists. Carried to it’s absurd conclusion, images of Muslim women are so at risk of ‘exploitation’ ‘fetishization’ ‘confirmation of barbarity’ etc, etc. that a strong implicit argument is being made that says their images should be struck from the Western media milieux entirely – which, given the interest actual women show in places like Gaza and Iran for the world to know about them, the effect of such western Muslim feminist critique becomes another kind of forced veiling, this time on the part of western Muslim feminists over their non-Western ’sisters.’

   
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  johnpi 4:45 pm on March 19, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Extremism (166), Feminism (26), Muslim feminists, peace activist Muslims (3), terorism, thailand (14)

  New York-based Human Rights Watch on Thursday condemned this month’s slaying by an alleged insurgent of Laila Paaitae Doah, a prominent peace advocate and Muslim women’s rights activist in Thailand’s violence-torn deep South. Laila was shot by a suspected Muslim militant in broad daylight on March 12 in Krongpenang district, Yala province, 750 kilometres south of Bangkok. She died of her wounds in hospital on March 13.
  “Laila’s brutal murder is part of ongoing efforts by insurgents to intimidate and attack Muslims who oppose insurgency or have supported Thai authorities,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Her death is a serious loss for those trying to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in the South.”