Transcript We consider it a Human Right, that every person can chose his

Faith/Activism:
Resisting Islamophobia
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Faith/Activism: e.g. What is a Muslim activist?
Muslim activists: not essentialised, but
- Self-identification by some activists
- Identification by other activists
- Identification through hegemonic discourses
Muslim activists: a meaningful category because
- Islam a powerful form of identification and mobilisation (as above)
- Islam defines political agendas, e.g. Palestine, Imperialism, for faith
groups and their allies and supporters
Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) /
Stop the War Coalition
‘We had Muslim women in the hijab leading the demonstration and the
shouting and megaphones and people repeating after them. We had
people of all ages, of all classes, standing together.’
Anas Al-Tikriti, on 15 February 2003
‘The objection was that we, the leaders of MAB, had over-politicised MAB’
and ‘put it on a crash course with the government, with the
establishment.’
Azzam Tamimi
‘People within the organisation’ … ‘especially the old, who came from
outside the country’ were unhappy with outspoken activism.
Anonymous
The precise definition of Islamophobia is ‘an irrational fear and hatred of
Islam and Muslims’ because it records the historic memory of Islam as
a competitor and inimical civilization.
Ziauddin Sardar
Representing Muslims as Intolerant Minority
Daily Mail and…
-Other newspapers, e.g. Sun
-Liberal feminists, speaking out on
forced marriage, e.g Uni Wikan
-Queer and human rights activists, e.g.
Peter Tatchell, condemning claims by
Dr Iqbal Sacranie, leader of the Muslim
Council of Britain, that ‘homosexuality
spread disease and was immoral’
-Discursive system: neo-Orientalism
As a terrified and unworldly 16-year-old, Inshana once faced a marriage to
a middle-aged cousin 33 years her senior. She says: "The memory still
makes me feel physically sick. If I shut my eyes I can almost smell him and
see him sitting opposite me, licking his lips with delight. Incredibly, in the
eyes of the Muslim community, this appalling union was going to bring
honour to my family.”
‘Her mother was Bangladeshi and her father of mixed Bangladeshi and
Polish background.’
‘I … literally tore off my hijab and flung it down.’
‘Within a year of new-found freedom, Inshana made another life-changing
decision – dropping her Muslim upbringing to become a born-again
Christian.’
‘Almost a European Invention’:
gendered and sexualised Orientalism
Instrumental, exploitative relationships
Romantic and fulfilling love
Collective, e.g. extended family
Individual
Primitive, barbaric, sickening traditions
Modern ways of life
Self-denial: veiling, confinement
Consumption
Islam
Secular, Christian
East
West
Alien
English
Other
Self
Context
Inshana’s story was given added resonance yesterday when it emerged
the Government has backed down over plans to make forced marriage
a criminal offence. It's thought protests from Britain's Muslim
community led to the dropping of proposals announced two years ago.
Ministers this week admitted they feared such a law would be "resented
as an intrusion into minority cultures and religions". But charities and
campaigners opposed to forced marriage voiced bitter disappointment.
For now at least, the scores of young Muslim girls who go through such
marriages every year will find no protection in the law.
Questions
1. To what extent does forced marriage exist in Europe, and specifically
among European Muslims?
2. How is forced marriage being tackled today, through practical
interventions?
3. To what extent is forced marriage a ‘European invention’ that constructs
Muslims as outsiders or others?
4. How are these hegemonic practices resisted, through representational
politics?
SPIOR Campaign Against Forced Marriage
Rotterdam and…Netherlands, Belgium,
Spain, UK, France, Germany, Italy
Work among victims and families
Work with media: contesting hegemonic
discourses
-Launch events attended by Tariq Ramadan
-Press releases, website, media interviews
-Publicity including multi-lingual booklet
-Media services (responsive)
Image: from SPIOR publicity
Orientalist Clichés
1. Reassertions of Islamic otherness: Lydia Nofal, SPIOR partner
organisation in Berlin:
Still these people criticise us and watch us with distrust. They say
‘Generally it is good, that they do something – but they don´t really
want to do something against forced marriages, they just want to keep
the control over the girls, or whatever. You can say what you want, you
can do, what you want, they never believe, that you share the common
values. You can even be a German, but as soon as you convert to
Islam, you have in their eyes left the basis of common values. And if
you than engage in something, that this society holds important, they
don´t believe you – not only in this issue – with everything we
(Muslims) do.
2. Religion best kept in private sphere
- Coverage distracted by ‘veiled women,’ e.g. Tageszeitung
- German debates framed by Necla Kelek, Turkish-born sociologist and
writer, who argued that forced marriage is Islamic, i.e. Islam is problem,
not solution
3. Forced marriage should be contested through secular channels
- Wider, secular claims that Islam is part of the problem, not the
solution, e.g. ASFAD (Association de Solidarité avec les Femmes
Algériennes Démocrates) and GAMS (Groupe d’Action Contre les
Mutilations Sexuelles)
4. Religious and secular approaches are at odds
- Jungle World, Berlin leftist weekly, initiative was the ‘obvious attempt
to withdraw Muslim girls, who have become more self conscious, from
the public help centres and women’s houses to bring them to an Islamic
guidance’
5. Association with ‘Islamist extremism’
- Ramadan linked to Muslim Brotherhood… through family connection
Messages about progressive Islam/
Progressive messages about Islam
Jungle World praise for ditching ‘mantra’ that forced marriage ‘has nothing
to do with Islam’
Politis (French left-wing weekly): ‘This campaign is an ambitious and a
risky bet. Rather than demanding full citizenship rights for European
Muslims or deconstructing the Islamophobic overtones of certain public
polemics, Muslims engaged in this campaign envisaged dealing
publicly about an issue related to the private sphere. A sphere marked
by the weight of cultural legacy and the contradictions of painful
migratory itineraries/experiences.’
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung printed Marianne Vorthoren’s reply to
Necla Kelek: ‘We consider it a Human Right, that every person can
chose his partner freely. And this Human Right coincides with the fact,
that Islam prohibits the forceful contracting of a marriage or any kind of
pressure in this affair.’
Controversy drew attention to SPIOR: ‘It had the effect that many different
people from all over ordered the leaflet with us. So they can see that
Mrs Kelek did not write the truth.’ (Lydia Nofal)
Informational articles: e.g. Liberation, 5 related articles, relay facts and
arguments as set out in SPIOR press releases and pamphlets
Further Questions and Conclusions
Rethinking relationships between liberal-identified majority and minorities
5. How can progressive sexuality politics be reformulated to mobilise
counter-hegemonic and specifically postcolonial constructions of
sexualities and moralities?
6. How can complacent constructions of majority societies be interrogated,
reformulating constructions of liberalism and tolerance?
7. How can these theoretical and ideological projects underpin practical
interventions to empower vulnerable individuals, such as reluctant
young brides and grooms?
Conclusions: Faith/Activism
-
‘Muslim Geographies’ as spaces of resistance/activism
Islam deployed strategically, not essentialised
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