Islamophobia as a tool of the religious right to suppress dissent

[NonnyMouse1337]

I don't know if Maryam Namazie is gender critical or a RadFem but I have always admired her left wing and feminist stance against Islamic political and religious right wing movements. She is one of the few people on the left that denounces identity politics and it always pleases me to no end how uncomfortable she makes a lot of 'progressives' because she points out the issues with viewing all Muslim people as some monolith that needs unquestioning support, and oppressive clothing like the hijab are 'empowering' for Muslim women.

It's a really good article and I especially liked this bit -
Like ‘Britishness’, the concept of ‘Muslimness’ is fundamentally about exclusion. Britishness tends to exclude brown and black people. Muslimness tends to exclude doubters and dissenters – anyone not ‘authentically’ regressive enough, not veiled enough, not segregated enough, not submissive enough, not pro-Sharia enough, not modest enough, not angry enough and not offended enough. Everyone else is an ‘Islamophobe’, an ‘Uncle Tom’, a ‘native informant’, a ‘coconut’ or a ‘westernised, neo-colonialist.’

sister-hood.com/maryam-namazie/defining-islamophobia/

Maybe this isn't the best place to post this article, but most libfem and leftie spaces online cannot comprehend any critique of Islam and Islamic practices. Like the trans topic, they conflate anything other than unquestioning support as an indication of bigotry against Muslims.

The religious far right and the political far right are two sides of the same coin. As an Indian woman who spent the first 18 years of my life in Kuwait, I'm still immensely disappointed at the huge betrayal of the Left and Feminism in general in Western politics in its alignment with the religious far right in its desperate attempt to score points and 'appear' progressive. I can only hope the cancer of identity politics can be removed and replaced with actual solidarity.

Anyway, hopefully some others find it an interesting read as well. :)

Britishness includes black and brown people. Englishness / Welshness / Scottishness doesn’t. That’s why when you ask a black or brown person born in the UK what nationality they are they will tend to say British.

Yes, people who describe themselves as British are usually BME/posh/Northern Irish.

Yes, you're both right. I stand corrected. :)

The article claims to be critiquing identity politics, but it actually is about defending identity politics.

She is annoyed by it defending ‘expressions of muslimness’ which she sees as excluding people who identify as Muslims but don’t do anything particularly seen as Muslim.

That’s classic identity politics. Getting annoyed that somebody having the right to observe Ramadan is protected while someone not observing it isn’t. That is ridiculous. What do you want? A round of applause for not doing something? It’s like the asexual bit of LGBT.

I’m being a bit harsh, because I do respect her for standing up to some appalling treatment she’s received at the hands of progressives.

And I also agree with goosefoot that many secular people have absolutely no idea about religion.

The nub of race/cultural/religious relations lies in whether your answer to the question is one of segregation or integration. I’m not even sure if it even follows traditional right/left divides, although certainly it is more visible on the right. The left as it so often does writes itself a pass or simply sticks it’s head in the sand and is blind to the nuances all in the name of identity politics and virtue signaling.

Consider how effective accusations of racism or islamaphoboa are in shutting down debate. At best people genuinely don’t want to be prejudice or at worst they don’t want to be seen as those things. This is actually a step in the right direction.

A lot of modern liberal or left leaning concepts are segregationist when you scratch beneath the surface, cultural appropriation? Promotes segregation. Affirmative action? Same. We need to call out segregationist policies when they arise as it makes things worse not better.

I’ll stop saying I’m English as well then?

Yes, people who describe themselves as British are usually BME/posh/Northern Irish

I describe myself as British. I'm not moderately posh but none of the others. I use "British" as for me it is more nebulous and I do not like having "Scottish" foisted on me.

Sorry , "moderately posh"

Sexualisation of women's bodies, pushing them, others, the fashion industry to treat them as objects, is about a demeaned view of women. Telling women their bodies are dirty so they have to cover them is a demeaned view of women.

They aren't the same, because they are different things, they are absolutely comparable as they have some commonalities, they can both go very wrong or be relatively mild.

But the inability to compare them, to even see how our own means of social oppression operates, is the kind of thing I meant when I said I appreciated the ability of many Muslim women to discuss such things in a measured and rational way.

That's a good point about segregationism, Derval, I hadn't really thought of it that way but I think its true.

Endofthedays her point is there is a lot of coercive and emotional pressure on Muslims and Ex-muslims from their families and members of their community to conform to certain Islamic practices such as hijab or Ramadan. As usual, women receive the most pressure. The penalty for speaking out, criticising or refusing to comply is high. Islamic countries prescribe the death penalty for apostates and their teachings and fatwas are disseminated in a number of UK mosques.

These unpleasant issues are swept under the rug and ignored by many progressives. You don't have to deny someone their right to observe Ramadan to criticise the harassment and intimidation of those who refuse to comply.

There is always variation in how people practice their faith. Christians don't get harassed by other Christians for not bothering to observe Lent, for example.

I can usually guess whether my Northern Irish relatives are from my grandfather’s Protestant side or my grandmother’s Catholic side depending on whether they define themselves as British or Irish. It’s not a question of geography - they may live only streets away from each other - it’s about politics.

I suspect that’s true to a lesser extent of Scotland and Wales.

I suspect that’s true to a lesser extent of Scotland and Wales

The Catholic/Protestant issue is an issue in Glasgow- not on the east coast. My family are Catholic ( probably if I cared to research pre- reformation Catholic rather than Irish Catholic) I describe myself as British.

I was brought up a Roman Catholic and always questioned why our faith was better than others, which led to me becoming atheist at a relatively early age.
I eventually married a woman who was bought up Muslim, though she was never fundamentalist and doesn't go to a mosque. We have been together nearly twenty nine years. Her family are mostly great, lovely people, not strictly religious.
My family on the other hand have not been very welcoming towards my wife, my sister having actively tried to split us up.
From the moment we met, there were some English people who made nasty remarks about my wife, or would ignore her at social gatherings, simply based on the fact of where she was born - Iran.
The rise of the phrase "Islamophobia" definitely has its roots in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the war there and the subsequent terrorist attacks around Europe.
The attacks in the UK were carried out by one particular group of Muslims - Wahhabi Sunni, who were radicalised mostly by Saudi funded preachers/imams, based in Saudi funded mosques and madrassas.
The people who carried out the attacks, were largely from communities which do not integrate into mainstream British life, they do not socialise, drink alcohol (although some males do and also abuse class A drugs), and they would love to see Sharia law implemented in the UK.
After each terror attack, our left wing media tended to deflect blame and concentrated instead on perceived Islamophobic attacks on Muslims, and on the supposed rise in "Right wing" violence.

Sheila Jeffrey's wrote an excellent feminist critique of Islam in one of her more recent books, can't remember the name of it now.

It's called "Man's Dominion: the rise of religion and the eclipse of women's rights "

I thought she was very brave to write it because feminists get absolutely vilified for criticizing Islamic ideology, same as they do with trans ideology

I was wondering how the media would handle it when the Two Most Oppressed Classes eventually collided and the coverage of the Birmingham schools protest showed where the hierarchy of oppression places each. Islam has been knocked into second place.

Nonny, but we have laws in to protect people who don’t want to adhere to specific religious or cultural practices.

Laws in place.

Endofdays - what laws are those?
The experiences of Ex-muslims aren't exactly positive.
Activist work by CEMB and Faith to Faithless in highlighting these issues is encouraging though.

The equality act - religion and belief. There was also the case of the dentist who wouldn’t see a patient as she wasn’t wearing a hijab. He was disciplined over that.

There are many very orthodox Catholics who are very close to a Marxist position for example.

Are they? Really?

Yes, really.