The Great Game

This week we returned to the course textbook and looked at chapters 10-14 in 'The Silk Road.'

Islam Today

In the first readings for tomorrow's class we returned to Edward Said's The Clash of Ignorance. He attempts to unpack Huntington's thesis and figure our exactly what is the clash that Huntington is chronicling. Said suggests that Huntington had no time to spare for internal dynamitcs and plurality of every civilization, and that he demonstrates ignorance in presuming to speak for a whole religion and treat it as a civilization instead. Afteer 9/11 especially we see that in an instant that everything 'prophesized' in Huntington's book (and other's like it) came 'true.' In came the stereotyping, the fear of terrorism and Muslims all fuelds by this ignorance that was pushed froth by the media and authors like Huntington.

In the second reading, by Mahmood and Hirschkind, we start in 1999 with the story of Mavis Leno (Jay Leno's wife) and her campaign against the Taliban's brutal treatment of Afghan women. What is interesting about this article is that is puts forth all the evidence that has been out there for years that has been conveniently ignored. As presented in Said's article, the ideas are moulded by the media in order to fit with the picture in which the American government wishes to paint of 'the other.' Mahmood and Hirschkind present the evidence that the Americans had brought in harsh military brutality as they attempted to build up the Taliban regime in hopes of building a partner in the desolate Middle East region. As a political science student I have learned this time and time again, but everytime I read studies like this it reminds me more and more of how very much the media is at work every day and in every story. More than a decade after America's first involvement with the Taliban so many people remain ignorant of the facts. Mavis Leno states that '... they forbade women from all positions of employment, eliminated schools for girls... etc.' but does not discuss the predicament of the women who were forced to deal with an entirely changed society with massive military and economic support provided by the US as part of their Cold War strategy. It is upsetting to see that the historical context has been silenced in such a way that charitable work becomes distorted and pointed against the wrong enemy.

Here is a youtube video with Edward Said discussing Huntington's 'bloating' book 'Clash of Civilization'.... it's interesting because he does NOT seem to be a fan of this book AT ALL. This is just part 1, if you're interested you can continue on to part 2/3/4.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boBzrqF4vmo

From the Spread of Islam to Contemporary views of Muslim people

In this week's readings, we first encountered a general history of the spread of the Islamic faith from Ayoub, and then an examination of Islam as a part of the contemporary world by Ernst. Ayoub's article covers big historical points about the rise of Islam as well as the on going turmoil between Christian-Islam relationship. This is important because it paints a picture of the relationship that Christians had with Muslims from the outbreak of the religion's rise to power in the region. It is also useful with the Ernst article, because together we see the progressive change of attitudes between the two religious groups. In more contemporary times, as pointed out in Ernst's article, we see that what used to be Muslims vs. Christians, now becomes Islam vs. the West. Ernst brings to the light the problem with generalizing Muslims as an entire religious group targeted as the enemy of the West. I find this article to be completely provocative because he, as a nonMuslim, is trying to convince readers that Islam is human, and not a combination of the fundamentalist acts of aggression through terrorism.

An interesting fact that we learned in class about this article is that the editors found it to be 'apologetic for terrorism' even though Ernst was not in fact a Muslim himself. He told them that he is not a Muslim but just a scholar studying them, trying to make people avoid prejudice when studying Islam. The more we talked about this article in class, the more I think I will pick up the rest of this book and read it. I am very interested to know what else Ernst has to say, as he seems like a very fascinating individual who has a passion for exposing the truth and innocence about Islam.