An interesting article about Islam, the Quran, and wife-beating. The author tackles the kind of issue that is fundamentally difficult when talking about “liberal interpretation” of Islam: if it’s written pretty unambiguously in the Quran, it’s difficult to justify change. What these interpretations miss out however is that just because something is written in the Quran doesn’t mean it’s universally followed or even known about. Not to mention that certain patriarchal practices are probably more about traditional conservatism and misogyny (two traits certainly prevalent among both Arab Muslims and Arab Christians) than an understanding of religion.
I’d love to know your opinion about http://quixoticals.blogspot.com/2006/10/jihad-comes-to-myspace-radical-islamic.html“ rel=”nofollow”>Soldiers of Allah joining MySpace. Do you think this is a sign of things to come?
Christopher, having listened to Soldiers of Allah and looked through MySpace, I think they’re different kinds of the same thing: garbage. And that SoA are interested in spreading their popularity just like any other band. It would be rather depressing though if singles such as “Dirty Kuffar” made an inroad into the listening tastes of young MySpace users, Muslim or otherwise.
Christopher-
This certainly is a sign of things to come…
End Times is near. We need to prepare ourselves for the coming onslaught of the Forces of Darkness.
After the ensuing battle, which we will win, Our Lord And Savior Jesus Christ will come down to Biblical Israel and eye-laser-zap the remaining Jews who don’t accept the Light of Jesus Christ in their lives. Then all Good and Faithful Christians will be teleported to Heaven via the Magical Powers of Jesus Christ. Afterwhich, we will rejoice, as It Was Written.
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So, to sum up my answer: Yes, if you look hard enough, you can find a connection between this rap group and a trend in Western Muslim 5th-columnism a la the Iraq-AlQaeda connection.
What I found somewhat strange in the 4:34 dance article was the assumption that somehow people (Muslims, in this case) walk around with lines from religious scriptures in their heads and use these to guide their everyday behaviour, rather than subconscious internalized cultural attitudes. You can find misogynistic lines in Christian and Hindu scriptures too – what makes people decide to follow them or ignore them? I think that’s the more important question (not what 4:34 “really” means)
The people that the author writes about are migrants to the US from South Asia (*not* Arabs, note), and it’s true that the mosque and temple become “community” institutions for these groups in the States, and religion becomes something migrants can hold on to to preserve “their” culture. But I’ve certainly never heard anyone announce that they were going to beat their wife tomorrow because it was justified in the Qur’an.
If you look at the last two paras of this article, below, you’ll see that domestic abuse is incredibly common and rationalized on all sorts of (non-religious) grounds in South Asia. It’s not exactly unheard-of in the States either. Where does religion come into it, then? (not saying it doesn’t – I just don’t think the causal chain has been identified at all in this article)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6086334.stm