Some Required Reading Before the Junta Returns to Power
Here at RicMinInform, we try and keep everyone out in front of what Her Inexorableness will be decreeing, so that everyone can get their bowing, scraping, and denouncing on the same page. Here, we suspect, will be a prime source of discussion when she returns from occultation (it is not permitted to imply that the junta sleeps).
So, here’s Stephen Süleyman Schwartz (himself a Sufi and the head of the Center for Islamic Pluralism) with some reportage on a prominent Bosnian Muslim religious intellectual (Prof. Dr. Rešid Hafizović, Faculty of Islamic Sciences, Sarajevo) decrying the debasement of historically cosmopolitan European Islam by reactionary, retrograde Arabian Wahhabism, borne thence on rafts of Saudi money. Methinks Professor Hafizović will feature in the junta’s ongoing Moderate Muslim Watch.
The “virus” of Saudi-financed Wahhabi radicalism has “destroyed every chance” for the development of European Islam, according to a leading Muslim theologian from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Professor Resid Hafizovic of the Sarajevo Faculty of Islamic Studies, in an interview with the Bosnian secularist daily Oslobodjenje (Liberation), condemns Wahhabism as “a new plague,” promoted by “Muslim puritans and perpetual world fixers.” He chastises the radicals as “unschooled, uneducated, confused people, who forbid their own children, for example, to study biology in school.” He describes the followers of the Saudi state sect as “a movement unsatisfied with and intolerant of everything which does not fit its ideological views, and which therefore is often predisposed to the methods of murderous ideologies that use any means to achieve their goals.”
In a broad critical assessment of European Islam, Hafizovic, an expert in traditional Islamic texts, assails the adoption by Muslim women of the burqa and face veil (niqab) as a recent affectation in which “faith and religious belief” are the least element. “Some Muslims," he says, "are unable to comprehend that a billion more important issues than this exist.” He describes the world’s Muslims as capable only of presenting themselves as a large part of the world's population, but lacking “vital influence in the global market of ideas and related achievements.” He continues, “I would be happier to see in tomorrow’s Bosnia as many of the best trained Muslim women university professors as possible, with a strong consciousness of their own religious identity and values, whether they wear a headscarf or not, than to see a crowd of women trapped in the burqa and face veil, cut off from the world and life.”
Regarding the 2009 Swiss vote to ban minarets from mosques, Hafizovic says, “Muslims in Europe and in the West often bear responsibility for such a climate. Inept in their own intellectual tradition and infected by the virus of Muslim puritanism, they are unable to establish communication even between Muslims, and even less communication with their environment.”
Read the whole thing, as one is required to enjoin by Internet etiquette. Here's the original interview, if you want to test your Bosnian.
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Aug '10
Re: Some Required Reading Before the Junta Returns to Power
This guy makes way too much sense. He's going to have to emigrate to the U.S. to avoid the Wahhabi death squads when the Islamofascists inevitably take over Europe
May '10
Re: Some Required Reading Before the Junta Returns to Power
Assuming he's correct that Saudi money is crucial to the proliferation of Wahhabi ideology, doesn't that suggest ways to combat it, other than merely inviting more sensible Muslims for the occasional TV or website interview? Let's address Saudi influence specifically. How can we either stop it or counteract it?
Stopping it would require diplomatic pressure on Saudi Arabia. Frankly, that's above my pay grade. Though we could stop feeding the beast by opening up more of our own lands and waters for oil and gas exploration, I don't see how we could prevent others from dealing with the Saudis.
Assuming few in Hollywood would be willing to risk anything for rational Muslims, perhaps Bollywood would help. Sure, they're mostly Hindi, but I suspect Indians better understand the stakes (and languages, aesthetics of the region).
Also, Hafizovic seems to be repeating Steyn's argument that Wahhabi wouldn't be so successful if the West wasn't so culturally weak and barren. To that end, I'd say a key ingredient is bold leadership which gives normal folks the courage to be patriotic and principled.
Edited on Oct 11, 2010 at 1:58pmAug '10
Re: Some Required Reading Before the Junta Returns to Power
A tip of the hat to a great phrase: "perpetual world-fixers". Wonder who he would consider the "perpetual world-breakers" ? As he isn't an American professor of course .
I'll tell you, between them and the fleas on the dogs this year, it's been a heck of a summer.
Turns out that flea collars (which my dogs and cats regard about as highly a 14 yr Wahhabi girl in Euro Disney would her burqa on a hot day ) don't work either.
Edited on Oct 11, 2010 at 2:13pmJun '10
Re: Some Required Reading Before the Junta Returns to Power
Good info. Nice to hear a moment of optomism. Let's keep digging and raise these Muslims to the pedestal upon which they belong.
Re: Some Required Reading Before the Junta Returns to Power
Sleep? The Junta? Tell that to the mosquito--or more properly, the former mosquito who is now a bloody smear on my wall.
For those curious, I used a copy of Turkish Policy Quarterly--my choice of policy quarterly for personal and home protection, with exactly the right hand size, "feel," and preference for single or double action. TPQ is a mosquito-stopper, pure and simple. Take one of them with the TPQ, and odds are heavily against their being able to continue any kind of coherent, directed attack. The relative low velocity, combined with the mass of the periodical, minimizes the risk of the periodical passing through the target and causing beyond-target casualties.
I return now to the quest for his brethren. I shall comment further when they have all properly appreciated the bitterness of the Junta's wrath. And when I've had a few more hours of occultation.
Jul '10
Re: Some Required Reading Before the Junta Returns to Power
The Faculty of Islamic Sciences? An expert in classic Islamic texts?
Nice work if you can get it, I suppose, by not very, um, useful from a societal point of view. I read somewhere that upwards of 80% of degrees conferred by the Islamic world's leading universities are for studies in Islamic theology.
How is the Islamic world ever going to haul its donkey cart out of the 7th Century when the overwhelming percentage of intellectual inquiry consists of poring over the dusty texts of the Koran and the Hadiths? Must make for some fascinating chit chat over the old hookah, but meanwhile, Israelis apply for more patents in one year than have been issued to Muslims in centuries.
But wait! Here's an Islamic patent right now! The Muslim Prayer Counter!
http://www.patentlysilly.com/patent.php?patID=6783822
Oh, um, actually, it's a U.S. patent....
Jul '10
Re: Some Required Reading Before the Junta Returns to Power
Kenneth, you are a bit harsh, but - sadly - probably more right then wrong.
I like the gist of what this fellow says. To emphasize a "European" mode of Islam that is distinct from the Wahhabist strain, one that European Muslims can coalesce around and towards which they can develop a loyalty. That is exactly what is needed.
I bet there is a Fatwa on his head within a week.
Aug '10
Re: Some Required Reading Before the Junta Returns to Power
Curious coincidence here is that they disclosed that the book thrown at Obama the other day in Philly was a copy of the Turkish Policy Quarterly.
The photo on the back was of one of the dragon prowed boats that ply the Bosphorus, not Loch Ness as earlier mentioned.
That US Air flight still connect through Frankfort to Istanbul ?
Jul '10
Re: Some Required Reading Before the Junta Returns to Power
Patrick Shanahan: Kenneth, you are a bit harsh...
Not at all harsh. According to a recent Lebanese TV programme, out of the world's top 500 universities, not one of them is an Arab institution. When the question came up what exactly Arab universities teach, the answer was theology. Indeed, the two most prestigious Arab universities, al Azhar in Egypt and al Qarawiyin in Morocco consider themselves "fortresses that protect Islamic civilization against the crusaders."
The Obama administration has been waging war against domestic oil and gas production and Canadian tar sands but sees no problem paying Saudis to spread Wahhabism world-wide.
May '10
Re: Some Required Reading Before the Junta Returns to Power
Claire Berlinski, Ed.: Sleep? The Junta? Tell that to the mosquito--or more properly, the former mosquito who is now a bloody smear on my wall.
For those curious, I used a copy of Turkish Policy Quarterly--my choice of policy quarterly for personal and home protection, with exactly the right hand size, "feel," and preference for single or double action. TPQ is a mosquito-stopper, pure and simple.
Since F=M*V^2, wouldn't it be better to use a smaller, lighter, very flexible document and whip it using pure wrist speed? It's not like the mosquito is hard to flatten due to serious armor plating, but sometimes you really need to be quick.
At least we do in Minnesota before one of those hemophile females has fully latched onto a ripe blood vessel.
Edited on Oct 12, 2010 at 10:37amMay '10
Re: Some Required Reading Before the Junta Returns to Power
Kenneth, I think you are missing something very important here. The war in Islam right now is over the legitimacy of the radical theologians' interpretations of the Qur'an and hadith. The rigid assertion by Wahhabists and Salafists is that the books are inerrant and unchanged since 700 or so- hence, every word of the text must be taken literally.
An expert in classic Islamic texts is the one who can do both document analysis and textual analysis to show that the texts were actually altered through the years, and thus need to viewed less rigidly, more flexibly with regard to how commands fit into the society.
The Atlantic had a long story a decade ago that explained this pretty well. This kind of study is very important to the development and acceptance of non-political Islam- that is, the essential slow reform of the culture.
This battle is much more than an "ignore 'em until they get out of line, then nuke 'em" scenario.