The Fall and Rise of the Veil: Leila Ahmed

1
The Fall and Rise of the VeilLeila Ahmed

• To be an American... is not to blindly accept
  America as it is
• (Sociology 156)

2
State Repression

• Across the 1990s, govt antiterrorism campaign
  degenerated into indiscriminate state
  repression. More than 20,000 Islamists were
  imprisoned . . . many of them had been detained
  without charges and subjected to torture.
• Restrictions on press, military courts
• Threat of imprisonment for association with any
  Islamist group, even if nonviolent
• Especially the Brotherhood (151)
• High levels of chronic coercion signals weak state

3
Why does Islamism grow in popularity in the face
of repression?

• Unlike militant Islamism, not just against status
  quo but for a better alternative
• Valuable social networks
• Embodies many of the same hopes and aspirations
  for freedom from dictatorship and for social
  justice and public accountability that have
  inspired other movements
• A form of empowerment for young people, who can
  critique their elders from a religious standpoint
• Powerful forces of peer pressure powerful
  social coercion
• Isnt it proper, following the path of the
  Prophet?
• A demand for social political activism,
  political optimism
• Contrasted with a politically quietist pessimism
  common among non-Islamists (150-156)
• Webers active asceticism the believer as Gods
  tool

4
MSA

• 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act
• Abolished quotas that had prevented immigration
  from Africa, Asia, not-Europe to the US
• Largest Muslim immigration
• Overwhelming majority not Islamists, represent
  mainstream Muslims of their time
• But some were, as repression in Nassers Egypt
  elsewhere leads to Islamist migration
• 1963, Urbana, IL Muslim Student Association
  (MSA) founded by Islamist immigrants
• Gutbi Ahmed Islam was seen as an ideology, a
  way of life, and a mission, and the organization
  was not considered simply a way to serve the
  community but as a means to create the ideal
  community and to serve Islam.
• 1963 10 affiliated associations, 1968 105
  across US Canada
• 1968 begin to draw funding from Muslim majority
  nations (ends in 90s) (158-163)

5
MSA

• During the 1960s, the MSA begin to do outreach
  work
• Mosques, Islamic centers, schools, summer camps,
  etc.
• Mosques also function as social centers
• Lectures, study groups
• Congregationalization
• Outreach conversion programs, especially active
  in prisons
• Muslim immigrants turn to MSA for services,
  mosques function as institutions that facilitate
  assimilation
• Like Latino Catholics in Putnam Campbell
• As the MSA grew, its departments (financial,
  educational, etc.) each had its own head
• Department heads each had a doctorate in the
  relevant field, included women (161-164)

6
MSA

• Certain that they had arrived at the proper
  understanding of Islam, MSA members presented
  themselves as instructors and teachers of Islam
• Despite the fact that scarcely any of the MSAs
  members had any formal training in Islamic
  scholarship
• This is overwhelmingly the norm rather than the
  exception among Islamists, who, like Hassan
  al-Banna himself, were typically educated in
  secular rather than religious institutions.
  Often, moreover, their academic training was in
  the hard sciences.
• Taught their own committed, activist, and deeply
  modern understanding of Islam.
• Shaped by the assumptions of the supremacy of
  rationality and the irrelevance, for the most
  part, to a true understanding of the Quran, of
  the long Islamic tradition of what were, in the
  eyes of many Islamists, mere casuistry and
  interpretation.
• The Quran as they saw it was essentially a
  transparent text that any rationally trained
  persona doctor, an engineer, a social
  scientistworking within the framework of
  Islamism could reasonably interpret for himself
  and others. (164-165)

7
ISNA

• May initially have been dependent on Saudi Arabi
  for funding, and thus tended to promote Wahhabism
  and discourage criticism of SA
• Would gradually diversify relations w/Muslim
  world, reflect a great diversity of Muslim belief
  opinion
• 1981 MSA splits off the Islamic Society of North
  America (ISNA) to attend to the needs to a
  growing number of American Muslims
• MSA returns to its focus on college students
  campuses
• In response to internal criticisms that ISNA
  leadership had been too oriented toward their
  homeland, ISNA encourages Muslim Americans to be
  full participants activists in mainstream
  American politics (166-167)
• Hassan Maher Hathout (ISNA members, former
  Muslim Brothers to be an American... is not to
  blindly accept America as it is, but to strive to
  make it cleaner and better by using the available
  freedom, the constitutional rights and the
  democratic process persistently and relentlessly
  towards reaching that goal. (165-168)

8
The Face of Islam in America

• Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR),
  founded in 1994, focuses on the civil rights of
  Muslims in America
• Devoted to particular causes, not a rival to ISNA
• Together, ISNA and CAIR are the most prominent
  Muslim in America today
• Often approached by media politicians to
  represent Islam, becoming the face of the faith
  in the US
• Both have Sunni Islamist roots
• Describe the hijab as religiously mandated
  covering for women

9
The Face of Islam in America

• May be less than representative of American
  Muslims on the whole
• Immigrants sometimes unaware of brand of Islam
  practiced by MSA ISNA-founded schools
• Most Muslim immigrants not activists, do not see
  their faith as a political ideology, may be
  unwilling to ignore sectarian or national
  divisions
• This majority has no organization, so goes
  unrepresented in national politics
• Media tends to gesture at diversity of Islam, and
  then go on to generalize (168-71)

10
Islam African Americans

• Sunni Islamist organizations have made gains
  among the African American community
• Example Malcolm X after conversion to Sunni
  Islam going on hajj tens of thousands of
  pilgrims from all over the world. They were of
  all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to
  black-skinned Africans. But we were all
  participating in the same ritual, displaying a
  spirit of unity and brotherhood that my
  experiences in America had led me to believe
  never could exist between the white and the
  non-white.

11
Islam African Americans

• Most African American Muslims are Sunnis
• W.D. Mohammed, son of Elijah Mohammed, converts
  to Sunni Islam and took the larger part of the
  Nation of Islam with him
• During the 1970s, Saudi govt gave many African
  Americans scholarships to study in Saudi Arabia
• Salafist approach to Islam a staunchly
  protestant approach resonates with religious
  practices of many black Americans
• There is a general tendency of Muslims in America
  to group into mosques based on ethnicity,
  language, and nationality (171-175)

12
The 1990s

• Mujahedeen
• Fawaz Gerges Tens of thousands of hardened
  fighters baptized into a culture of martyrdom
• freedom fighters, trained equipped by CIA,
  funded by US Saudi Arabia
• Staunch anti-communists
• How could these warriors be demobilized and
  reintegrated back into their societies as
  law-abiding citizens? Could the genie be put back
  inside the bottle?
• USA becomes fundraising location
• Global network of militant Islamists emerges
• Veterans of war against Soviets in Afghanistan
  had the training to deploy their skills against
  their own govts and the West
• Blowback, Islamist terrorism in the US rises in
  the 1990s
• Abdel Rahman, the blind sheik, Ayman
  al-Zawahiri both get visas to raise funds in the
  US (177-80)

13
The 1990s

• While the response to terrorism in Egypt had
  resulted in negative attitudes toward Islamists,
  in the US the negativity was directed toward
  Muslims in general
• 1993 WTC attack
• Samuel Huntingtons The Clash of Civilizations
  becomes influential
• Daniel Pipes
• Militantly pro-Israel, anti-Muslim.
• Post-9/11, creates Campus Watch list of
  academics whom he considered insufficiently loyal

14
The 1990s

• Steven Emerson, anti-Muslim documentary maker
• On Oklahoma City bombing This was done with the
  intent to inflict as many casualties as possible.
  That is a Middle Eastern trait. Blamed Hamas,
  because The hate democracy. They hate America.
• Jennifer Rubin Norway mass shooting
• In wake of OKC attack, harassment of Muslims
  rises
• Also of Sikhs, because they wear turbans

15
The 1990s

• Some Muslims, not sharing the Islamist goals,
  Sunni beliefs, or political agenda of ISNA the
  MSA, speak out against it as an extremist
  organization that facilitates terrorism
• Khaled Abou El Fadl
• Islamist puritans vs. true Muslim moderates
• Sheikh Hisham Kabbani testifying at State Dept in
  1999
• MSA ISNA had hijacked the mike
• Says 80 of Islamic leaders in America extremists
• ISNA, MSA, CAIR condemn Kabbani as enabling
  stereotypes of all Muslims as terrorists (185-187)

16
The 1990s

• Operation Desert Storm
• American troops in Saudi Arabia
• Mecca Medina
• Saddam Hussein appeals to religion for support,
  not very successful
• Saudi Arabia Kuwait fund MSA ISNA, support
  the war
• SA Kuwait demand that MSA ISNA do likewise,
  the organizations refuse, money dries up
• As a result the organizations end up with greater
  financial political independence (186-189)