On “Muslim Reformists”

An old family friend added me on facebook the other day, and it just so happens that she’s my political polar opposite — a conservative/libertarian Ronald Reagan admirer who runs a blog which calls itself “one of the leading Muslim reformers in North America” and “the only Muslim publication that offers a truly objective look at Islam in the 21st century.”

I should have stopped reading right then.

But I didn’t, and I realized that over the years I’ve noticed a certain brand of people who call themselves Muslim reformers tend to share a few things in common — they:

  • Promote “Clash of civilizations” and “oppressed Muslim women” narratives among other Orientalist favorites.
  • Pander to the conservative right and its Zionist counterparts
  • Make frequent use of the term “liberal media” and suggest that positive depictions of Muslims are an incomplete or inaccurate framing of the Muslim community that only arise under the guise of political correctness
  • Make sweeping generalizations about Islam and the Muslim world while completely disregarding the complexity of its various regions and the nuance required to analyze their respective social, political, and cultural contexts.
  • Hold themselves in higher regard than other Muslim activists, often dismissing any non-“reformist” efforts as apologetic or extremist.
  • Lack the knowledge to make legitimate claims about Islamic teachings or theology but do so anyway
  • Promote Islamophobic conspiracy theories including the notion of “stealth jihad,” a coordinated Muslim effort to introduce Shariah law in the West, or the idea that Western Muslim advocacy groups like CAIR are a front for the Muslim Brotherhood
  • Repeat baseless claims including the falsehoods that the Muslim community doesn’t consistently condemn terrorism or that Muslims are uncooperative with law enforcement

But the most frustrating thing of all is that so many of these people’s intentions are revealed in the intended audience of their message. People like Mona Eltahawy, Irshad Manji, Zuhdi Jasser, Asra Nomani, and Tarek Fatah cater to a Western nonMuslim audience, a fact that deals a severe blow to any claimed goals to bring about reform in the Muslim community. These people use their status as Muslims (and critics of Islam) to promote themselves because that’s the sad reality — Islamophobia sells. And while the Muslim community is definitely in need of criticism, change, and progress, it’s not going to come from the outside.

48 notes | Reblog
10 months ago
Posted on July 4th at 6:00 AM
Tagged as: Islam. Muslims. Muslim reformists. Muslim reformers. Orientalism. Mona Eltahawy. Irshad Manji.
  1. rcabbasi reblogged this from rcabbasi and added:
    YOU GUYS LOOK PART OF A “PRESENTATION” SHE GAVE ON SHARIA TODAY I CAN’T.
  2. souslarbre reblogged this from rcabbasi
  3. le-kif-kif reblogged this from rcabbasi
  4. stannisexual reblogged this from strawberreli
  5. mickyalexandria reblogged this from wretchedoftheearth
  6. wretchedoftheearth reblogged this from arnoldsnarb
  7. arnoldsnarb reblogged this from talldarkarab and added:
    God I fucking loathe Mona Eltahawy, she panders to the worst kind of white feminism.
  8. themadmanwithapen reblogged this from talldarkarab
  9. sulponticello reblogged this from realfakescientist
  10. spoonsofcoughsyrup reblogged this from realfakescientist
  11. strawberreli reblogged this from thalamtnafsee
  12. pastagfirullah reblogged this from wewanttobe
  13. realfakescientist reblogged this from wewanttobe and added:
    Allah does not change a people’s fortune until they change what’s within themselves.
  14. wewanttobe reblogged this from thalamtnafsee and added:
    It’s not going to come from the outside nor do non-Muslims have any right whatsoever to ‘reform’ us.
  15. thalamtnafsee reblogged this from rcabbasi and added:
    cosign.
  16. gclocked reblogged this from musaafer
  17. musaafer reblogged this from rcabbasi