Muslims worldwide took to Twitter to speak out against the recent terrorist attacks in Paris. Using the hashtag #notinmyname, Muslims urge people not to use this incident as a reason to brand Muslims as radical extremists. "The ISIS do not represent Islam or any Muslim...we must all unite together and try to stop this group from damaging Islam and damaging Muslims," Muslims said in a video in an effort to distance themselves from the militant group.
Sadly, this incident might cause more people to label Muslims as eccentrics. Every since 9/11, the American media has done a good job in convincing the Western world that Muslims are nothing more than religious fanatics who wish to engulf the world in "jihad" (which is a term that entails more than aggressive militarism). Even New Atheists like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris believe that Islam, by its very doctrines, promotes violence and hostility.
As I watched this incident unfold, I could not help think to myself: If Edward Said were still alive, what would he say about ISIS? About Islamophobia? How would he convince us that ISIS has little if anything to do with the cultural heritage of Islam, or that Islamophobia is the result of Westernized perceptions of the "East?"
Said spent his entire life analyzing the relationship between Islam and the West, and his death has left a void in serious conversations about the religion that today's media personalities have been unable to fill.
Edward Said came from a background that made him least likely to be an outspoken critic of the West’s treatment of Islam. Born to Arab Christian parents in 1935, he was raised in Jerusalem and Egypt before emigrating to the United States in 1951. He often noted that he felt out of place as a child because of his multiethnic background: though born in Jerusalem, he was an American citizen through his father. He spoke both English and Arabic and was educated in the British colonial school system. Said was also a gifted student, obtaining a BA from Princeton in 1957 and a MA and PH.D. in English Literature from Harvard University in 1960 and 1964, respectively.
After joining Columbia University's English faculty in 1963, Said would spend the next four decades challenging the one-dimensional view that many Westerners had of the Islamic world. His book Covering Islam, for example, details how the Western world portrays Muslims as homogenous, intolerant, religious zealots. He often noted that, to the contrary, there were vast cultural differences between Islamic countries, that Islam is open to different cultures, and that the "predominant mood of the Arab [Islamic] world is very secular." He also suggested that terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda "[highjack] Islam" to achieve their own ends. In other words, Said argued that simple, accessible images of Muslims and groups who carried out terrorist attacks in Islam's name would not help one understand the religion better. "So much of Islamic life is [not] confined to personalities [terrorist groups] or neat structures [stereotypes] as to make the overused word 'Islam' an unreliable index of what we try to apprehend," he wrote in the abovementioned book.
Since Said's death in 2003, discussions about Islam and "Islamic" groups like ISIS have been left to pundits and satirists (media personalities), who often use such discussions as a platform to forward their own agendas. One does not have to look past Glenn Beck, who speaks on Islamic extremism on his talk show and who has even published an "authoritative" study on ISIS and its connection to Islamic teachings. Or Bill Maher for that matter, who regularly uses his show as a bully pulpit to preach about the evils of Islam. But if pundits like Glenn Beck really are the leading the discussion on Islam and ISIS, and if Elizabeth Bruenig's observation is correct, and we really have in fact left any serious opinions about these subjects to satirists who care more about ratings than spreading accurate knowledge, then our understanding of Islam will always be filtered through Islamophobia.
But it would be inaccurate to say that there have not been prominent intellectuals since Said who have tried to paint a more thorough picture of Islam. Take Arsalan Iftikhar for instance, a noted human rights lawyer and author. Iftikhar has been featured as a commentator on a number of major news outlets, including CNN and C-Span. He even got the opportunity to speak on Islam when he participated in the Doha Debates, an international debate forum sponsored by BBC World News that broadcasts to over 400 million people worldwide. He is also the senior editor of the Islamic Monthly and author of Islamic Pacifism: Global Muslims in the Post-Osama Era, a book in which he looks at the peaceful side of Islam. Such feats has led individuals like Tim Sebastian to dub him the ambassador of the Islamic world.
Is Iftikhar or any of his intellectual peers the next Said? Will they be able to find a voice outside of academic and news forums and shape public discourse on Islam? Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure: unless today's public intellectuals can achieve the same type of popularity and influence that media personalities have, we will continue to be kept in the dark about Islam's rich and complex legacy.
Sources:
http://www.isisnotinmyname.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/beliefs/jihad_1.shtml
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pHlaMkKlrQ (05:34-05:57)
http://www.christianpost.com/news/atheist-richard-dawkins-on-paris-terrorist-attack-all-religions-are-not-equally-violent-132281/
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Said
http://progressive.org/news/2001/11/5085/interview-edward-w-said
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVC8EYd_Z_g (24:28-24:31)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI6mjFL80xE (03:00-03:25)
Edward W. Said, Covering Islam (New York: First Vintage Book Edition, 1997), 65.
http://www.glennbeck.com/islambook/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rpgs39EUEQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2b3lshUKhk
https://newrepublic.com/article/121956/stewart-and-colbert-are-no-substitute-intellectuals
http://www.themuslimguy.com/
http://www.thedohadebates.com/pages/indexfb91.html?p=3259
http://www.amazon.com/Islamic-Pacifism-Global-Muslims-Post-Osama/dp/1463553129
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