'There Are Many Different Forms Of Islam...'

There is a popular perception that Islam is resistant to change...

The claim that Islam is resistant to change simply cannot besubstantiatedby mostof the historical, anthropological, or religious studies scholarship ontheIslamic world.

There are many different forms of Islam, and multiple interpretivereformtraditions withinIslam, each inflected by the culture or region in which they arelocated.The scholarshipon India has shown that the interweaving of community practices andtraditions isdynamic and constantly shifting, incorporating new elements and leavingothers aside.Islam is a religion that has influenced and has been influenced by thecultures that itinhabits. Thus, Muslims in North or South India may have differenttraditions, inflectedby Panjabi or Tamil cultures, even as Muslim practices in South Asiamaydiffersubstantially from Muslim practices in Africa, Indonesia or theMiddle-East. The verydiversity of Muslim cultural beliefs and traditions insures thatIslamwill always bechanging and adapting itself to new circumstances.

There may indeed be a perception that Islam is resistant to change, butinthatcase one has to understand how that perception is created. I would arguethat with thecollapse of the Soviet Union, and the end of the cold war, the U.S. andEurope attemptedto politically reconstitute themselves by defining themselvesideologicallyagainst Islam.

Samuel Huntington's (1996) book, The Clash of Civilizations and theRemaking of World Order is a notorious example of this tendency to treatIslamic society and civilization as radically opposed to the morals ofWestern civilization.Western commentators often reduce Islam to one driving concept, jihad,rather thanfocusing on plural traditions of ijtihad, interpretation, that canoftenmake for democraticforms of debate and dissent within Islamic societies. It is alsoclearthat Islamicorthodoxy often emphasizes the immutability of tradition in anattempt towrest authorityfrom reformers within Islam. But perhaps paradoxically, it is bothIslamicfundamentalistsand the hardline advocates of the superiority of Western civilizationthatare most investedin the notion of an inflexible Islam; the faith of millions ofobservantMuslims is bothmore open and flexible in practice. And while there are certainly versionsof Islam thatclaim to speak on behalf of a "pure" unchanging religion,Islam is notalone in thisrespect. There are strains of fundamentalist Christianity, Hinduism,andBuddhism all overthe world that seek to distort and misrepresent the practices of itsbelievers, and whichmust also be challenged.

Does this resistance to change stem from the immutability of Quran,aswellas because Islam makes no distinction between personal and public domain?

Once again, it makes no sense to examine only Islam from this perspective. Someadherents of Christianity or Hinduism may also consider theirreligioustexts to beimmutable. While there are a lot of theological constants in Islam (andall other religions), Islam as a practiced religion has not only adaptedtoits environmentsacross the world but has also engaged in serious internal debates aboutitspractices.

There is abundant evidence that speaks to both to the changing historicalandcultural specificity of Muslim practices throughout South Asia, the MiddleEast, andindeed, the rest of the world. I cannot emphasize enough thepresence ofliterary debateand theological discussion around women's rights in the Islamic world. In1905 RokheyaHossein published a gentle satire called "Sultana's Dream" inwhich menwere kept inpurdah, and women inhabited public space. There are also long traditionsofIslamicreform, from the publication of Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanawi'sBihishtiZewar in India atthe turn of the century, to the publication of Qasim Amin's"LiberationofWomen" inEgypt at the same time. The idea that Islam holds women to beintrinsically inferior is apernicious stereotype that must be refuted. For example, in MaulanaThanawi's BihishtiZewar, men and women are fundamentally the same, possessed of equalfaculties, andheld equally responsible for their behavior. Men and women are similarlypositioned in thestruggle between intelligence (aql) and undisciplined impulses (nafs). ForThanawi, womenand men had different social roles, but were otherwise identicallyendowedas conscientbeings. Thanawi made no argument that women, by nature, were morallyinferior to men. 

What do you think are the reasons why democracy is absent in largepartsofmuslim society? Why have most Muslim states been unable to separate the Churchfrom the State?

It is not always the case that Muslim states are unable to "separateChurchfrom State." Turkey is a Muslim society with a secular state. AlgeriaandEgypt too, aresecular, majority Muslim societies with democratically electedgovernments. The politicalscientist Mervat Hatem, even coined the term "state feminism" todescribethe Egyptiangovernment's advocacy or women's rights. Sociologists of Muslim societiessuch asMounira Charrad and Deniz Kandyoti also emphasize that the question ofMuslimwomen's rights must be linked to state policy, and not to Islam per se.

One would need strong historical blinkers to suggest that blame for theautocraticregimes of the middle-east lies at the door of Islam. The strategicimportance of the areafor the West has played a vital role in the creation of these corruptstructures ofgovernance. First, the colonial powers and now the United Stateshaveworked hard todestabilize, dismantle and overthrow any democratic movement in the region(rememberIran before the Shah?) and have consistently supported and installedautocrats who arewilling to safeguard the interests of the western powers.

The question of Islamic States has to be treated with somecare. ThoughIran is an Islamic Republic, its political leaders aredemocraticallyelected, and its citizensenjoy a higher standard of life, a higher status of women, a higher rateofliteracy, andmore personal freedom than in Saudi Arabia, a corrupt monarchy indebted toUS militarysupport. Pakistan and Bangladesh have seen BOTH military dictatorships andperiods ofdemocratic rule. But it is important to recognize that U.S.support ofZia ul-Haq inPakistan, another Islamic State, or of the mujahideen in Afghanistanisdirectly linked tothe rise to fundamentalist Islam and the subsequent erosionwomen'srights in thosecountries. The notorious Zina and Hudood Ordinances were brought into lawduring theU.S. backed Zia regime; a regime that was the beneficiary of millions ofdollars of U.S.military aid. In other words, Islam does not always have muchto do withthe shape ordirection an "Islamic State" takes--histories of colonialunderdevelopmentand economicindebtedness to the U.S, the IMF or World Bank more often determinetheparamentersof religious response to western modernization. One could draw the sameanalogy to thepresent Indian government's attempt to define India as a "Hindustate."This move sayseverything about current communal politics, but very little aboutthenature of Hinduism,or the faith as it is practiced by thousands of Hindus the world over.

Why is the condition of women in Muslim societies subservient to men?Considering Quranic injunctions--and their very narrowinterpretations--aboutpolygamy, divorce, dress code, etc, what are the ways out for women?

Yes, Muslim women in many parts of the world face difficult conditions,butrememberthat women in any culture or any society of the world are not treated asfull equals. TheUnited States, for example, has one of the highest rates of rape anddomestic violence inthe world. Women in the U.S. are also paid substantially less for the samework as men;and this is true in every field from medicine to law. But interestinglyenough, while twopredominantly Muslim states, Pakistan and Bangladesh, have both had womenPrimeministers during periods of democratic rule, the United States, whichthinks of itself as"the oldest democracy" is unlikely to have a woman president inthe nearfuture.

Let us not derogate Muslims, especially Muslim women, by suggesting thatthey passivelyaccept gender inequality. The history of Islam is a history ofstruggletoo. Muslimwomen have been active and vocal in working to change practices andtraditions that arerestrictive or hamper their freedom. The international network "WomenLivingUnderMuslim Laws" and the "Revolutionary Association of theWomen ofAfghanistan"(RAWA) are but two examples of such activism. There is no Muslimcountryor society inthe world where women are not advocating for their rights. Strongandwell-documentedfeminist movements exist in Muslim majority countries such as Afghanistan,Pakistan,Bangladesh, Egypt, Palestine, Algeria, Turkey, Morocco, Sudan, andIndonesia, to name afew. Muslim women are not necessarily seeking a "way out" oftheirreligion;some areseeking change and reform within Islam. Our role is to expressoursolidarity with theirstruggles to claim and exercise rights.

(Kamala Visweswaran is Associate Professor of Anthropology at University ofTexas, Austin and is currently a Bunting Fellow, Radcliffe Institute, HarvardUniversity)