Narratives@najahnasseri.org

While America isn’t exactly the bastion for democracy unless it’s in a movie, there are still many lessons on democracy, the democratic process and what that means to the minority Muslim community there that Muslims elsewhere can learn from.

In addressing the “American Muslim Community’s ‘Obama’ Problem”, Firas Ahmad has raised some pertinent issues for Muslims elsewhere in the world, in view of the much larger “Muslim Community Problem”.

The American Muslim Community’s “Obama” Problem

How do you root for a candidate who doesn’t want you to root for him?

by FIRAS AHMAD

As Obamamania continues to capture the imagination of the United States, parts of the American Muslim community are no less overcome by the Illinois senator’s charismatic and overpowering vision for change. It makes sense. He is a man of diverse ethnic background who seeks dialogue over war, who can credibly represent change given his independence from establishment politics and whose life story suggests an intimate understanding of the Muslim world. In many ways he represents more than Muslims could have hoped for given the radioactive nature of Islam in America over the past several years. Someone who seemingly has a sympathetic ear and background that could build bridges.

But for many reasons, Muslims are one constituency Obama does not want to court.

In actual fact, Muslims the world over has a bad name. The Malay adage holds true – kerana nila setitik, rosak susu sebelanga, and as much as we can talk till we’re blue (or green) in the face about how extremists do not represent Islam and is but a tiny minority of the 1.2 billion of us in this world, there is a reason why we still have a bad reputation, and it’s not all about Zionist/Illuminati conspiracy theories, nor is it a sign that we should just wait till Qiamat arrives.

The only reason a candidate like Obama would not say something nice about Muslims is because he is making a clear political calculation. The votes he would gain from Muslims are far less than the votes he would lose from his association with Muslims. This should be startling. Unfortunately it has not initiated the kind of discussion within the community necessary to change these political ramifications for candidates in the future. To be fair, other candidates have lost votes based on their religious affiliation. Romney, a practicing Mormon, could have had a much better shot as the Republican nominee if he were from a Protestant denomination. But in terms of public perception, Muslims are a whole other category of disrepute. We are not talking about a Muslim candidate, we are talking about supporting a candidate who denies any connection, real or perceived, to Islam.

It could be that talking till we’re blue in the face is not enough. It could be that being quietly compliant while giving up our democratic right to live as Muslims is not enough, nor would it make us more ‘acceptable’ to mainstream society. On this, the author has some very good suggestions for Muslim communities in the US, which is more than relevant in other parts of the world.

Policy and political decision making in America is not decided entirely on Capitol Hill. It is decided in the complex interaction of think tanks, academic institutions, book stands, radio shows, the evening news, newspapers, editorial pages, opinion polls, Hollywood blockbusters and much more. It is the confluence and interaction of all these institutions that inform how politicians behave, not the other way around. Politicians are simply seeking votes, and votes are determined by people’s inclinations, perceptions, prejudices and perspectives. If you want to win politicians, you have to build constituencies by changing the way people think.

If Muslims do not want to suffer the indignation of political irrelevance for many elections to come, instead of giving money to politicians, they should start investing in journalism scholarships. They should establish fellowships for Muslim academics to take a year off and write a book for a general audience, and then back them up with a PR firm to get the book on a best seller list. They should invest in publications that demonstrate a breadth and depth of thinking on a range of issues. They should invest in think tanks that analyze public issues and present actual value to the overall public discussion. All of these institutions exist right now for Muslims in America. But for the most part they are underfunded, underappreciated and undervalued. Because the community in general has not rallied behind them, they are for the most part invisible. Because they are invisible, Muslims are effectively invisible when it comes to Obama or any other serious candidate.

I would say that these suggestions have wider consequences in our part of the world, where extremists could be ‘reborn’ in our own backyards (or the next HDB block). By investing in the information and political process as it is set up today, we would also be reaching out to other Muslims, who when starved of a range of perspectives and a living role model to look up to, would hopefully not google an Al-Qaeda manual.

Reza introduced me to the works of the Arbinger Institute. While I’m still waiting for my copy of the book (hint! hint!), I’ve managed to get some nuggets from their website. Here’s one that everyone should ponder on:

The solution to violence grows out of the following foundational principles:

1. Every human being is a PERSON—a being with hopes, needs, cares, and fears.

2. When we regard others’ hopes, needs, cares, and fears as inferior to, or less legitimate than, our own, we see others as less than they are—as objects rather than as people.

3. To see a fellow person as an inferior object is to harbor a violent heart toward that person.

4. No matter our outward behavior, we end up communicating how we feel about others. To see others as objects, then, is to do violence to them—it is to swing at them with our hearts.

5. When others detect violence in our hearts, they tend to become defensive and to see US as objects. Violence in one heart provokes violence in others.

6. Most occasions of outward violence are manifestations of a prior, and often escalating, conflict between violent hearts. And attempts to curb violence, if done with a violent heart, actually provoke further violence.

7. Any effort to reduce outward violence will succeed only to the extent that it addresses the prior and core problem—the problem of violent hearts.

******

Thanks Tariq for this somewhat related link: Muslim Baptized by Pope Sought Dialogue

From the man who has been honoured for “encouraging tolerance between cultures” could use a lesson in the Principles of Non-Violence:

He said he reflected that even beyond “the phenomenon of the extremists and of Islamic terrorism on a worldwide level, the root of the evil is inherent in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictual.”

I read a great piece in NST last weekend about how little cultural differences, like whether one eats with utensils or with their hands, often becomes a demarcation line between us, and ‘the other’. In fact, many of the ways culture is introduced to children, especially to my generation, associates varying degrees of social status to the way we do everyday things. Like eating.

I’ve even come across people who think that eating with chopsticks is un-Islamic as well as people who turn up their noses at those who pick up food with their hands.

I wonder what it would be like if children are introduced to such cultural differences early on in life, where they can observe how ‘the Other’ conduct their lives without the accompanying judgmental narration that often comes with well-meaning (but socially-conditioned) adults.

Here’s one example. And I’d love to see how these kids turn out.

Georgia School as a Laboratory for Getting Along
by Warren St John

DECATUR, Ga. — Parents at an elementary school here gathered last Thursday afternoon with a holiday mission: to prepare boxes of food for needy families fleeing some of the world’s horrific civil wars.

The community effort to help refugees resembled countless others at this time of year, with an exception. The recipients were not many thousands of miles away. They were students in the school and their families.

More than half the 380 students at this unusual school outside Atlanta are refugees from some 40 countries, many torn by war. The other students come from low-income families in Decatur, and from middle- and upper-middle-class families in the area who want to expose their children to other cultures. Together they form an eclectic community of Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews and Muslims, well-off and poor, of established local families and new arrivals who collectively speak about 50 languages.

Read more here.

I called up a friend tonight to catch up and she reminded me that it’s almost 2008 and I promised her I’d come back to KL by then.

I glared at Fische.

Honestly, part of me would love to move back. To live in our swanky new apartment with an unobstructed view (hopefully it still is…) of KLCC – not the kind that those million-dollar condos get from across the road, but a respectably-sized silhouette of the Petronas Twin Towers against the skyline. To live in a tree-lined neighbourhood, with not one, not two, but three of the best Nasi Padang restaurants that the city has to offer within walking distance. To be close to some of the most interesting and intelligent people I know and the mind-blowing conversations that used to keep me up all night.

I met a lady in class who moved back to Singapore from KL for the sake of her son’s education. I guess that should be in my mind whenever homesickness sets in. If only I was as convinced as my classmate is in this matter. I realise that I would need to define success first, and then work backwards.

Which brings me why there is no single definitive parenting philosophy. Our definition of success varies from person to person. We all say we want our children to be balanced individuals who are happy, lead fulfilling lives, so on and so forth, but what we do and what we prioritise may say something totally different, which results in parenting techniques that are as different as chalk and cheese.

“Jangan jadi macam ketam yang mengajar anak dia berjalan lurus, sedangkan dia sendiri jalan senget.”

for more Peribahasa Melayu, go here

Some parents who exhibit competitive behaviour are surprised when their children can’t seem to handle failure. Some parents who constantly harp on money as a measure of success lament over how materialistic or shallow their kids have become. Some parents who themselves cut ties to their own families and friends wonder why their children place little value in nurturing these bonds. When I think about the position Fische and I should take on issues we’ll face as parents as Idris grows up, I wonder if we’re walking the talk.

I guess once we truly know what we ourselves value as characteristics of a successful (or rather, a complete) human being, the task of creating the parenting master plan should be clearer and hopefully, a little less daunting. A good place to start would be to look at role models from first “Qur’anic generation”, given that first and foremost, I hope to raise a good Muslim – one who is compassionate and kind, who is rooted in knowledge and conviction. So it seems that Fische and I would need to take that first soul-searching step – to honestly assess who we are as human beings, and our capacity and potential to nurture, teach and lead our children.

Read the rest of this entry »

From Great Interviews of the 20th Century by Melvyn Bragg. (Interview of Dennis Potter on March 15 1994.)

We all, we’re the one animal that knows that we’re going to die, and yet we carry on paying our mortgages, doing our jobs, moving about, behaving as though there’s eternity in a sense. And we forget or tend to forget that life can only be defined in the present tense; it is is, and it is now only. I mean, as much as we would like to call back yesterday and indeed yearn to, and ache to sometimes, we can’t. It’s in us, but we can’t actually; it’s not there in front of us. However predictable tomorrow is, and unfortunately for most people, most of the time, it’s too predictable, they’re locked into whatever situation they’re locked into … Even so, no matter how predictable it is, there’s the element of the unpredictable, of the you don’t know. The only thing you know for sure is the present tense, and that nowness becomes so vivid that, almost in a perverse sort of way, I’m almost serene. You know, I can celebrate life.

More here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/greatinterviews/story/0,,2155765,00.html