Basics of Islam · #4
Anti-Joann Socials: Basics of Islam #4
Recently, Joann Hernandez Skutches posted a RIDICULOUS “letter” to “Muslim countries.” I can’t find it now, buried in her stream of Islamophobic posts. In effect, it asked: Why do Western democracies let Muslims practice their religion while Muslim-majority countries don’t give Christians the same freedom?
Muslim-majority countries are not one monolith. Their laws and treatment of religious minorities differ, and have changed over time. Any honest comparison has to account for that.
My parents immigrated from Pakistan. They grew up and went to medical school there in the 1950s and ’60s. Pakistan later came under the rule of General Zia-ul-Haq after a 1977 military coup. Zia was a military dictator who pursued a hard-line Islamization program, including the Hudood Ordinances.
Pakistan was founded in 1947, when British India was partitioned. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a highly educated lawyer and leader of the Muslim League, argued for a separate homeland for South Asian Muslims. Pakistan began as two geographically separated wings: West Pakistan and East Pakistan, which became Bangladesh in 1971. The BJP was founded decades later, and Hindutva politics have their own history; neither explains Pakistan’s founding. Partition brought mass migration and brutal communal violence affecting Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs. Muslims were killed and displaced, as were Hindus and Sikhs.
My paternal aunt told my mother, “Beta [my child], we have to get out of here [India]—there will be blood up to our knees.”
Muslim communities can also be minorities and face state repression or discrimination. The UN human rights office documented serious abuses against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim groups in China’s Xinjiang region. In Pakistan, Ahmadis are officially classified as non-Muslims, and laws restrict them from identifying as Muslims. These histories are different; no single description fits every Muslim-majority country or Muslim community.
Pakistan is home to Christians, Hindus, Parsis (Zoroastrians), and other religious minorities. I know many Pakistani Christians who are proud to call themselves Pakistani Christians. That pride is real, and it can coexist with discrimination and violence against religious minorities.
Hijabs, burqas, and shalwars are not interchangeable. A hijab is a head covering; a burqa is a full-body covering garment, often including the face; a shalwar is loose trousers worn across South Asia by women and men. How Muslims dress—and what they understand religious texts to require—varies among communities and individuals.
I’ve read the Qur’an, Islam’s holy text, four times. I haven’t found a verse that explicitly says women must cover their heads. It tells men and women to observe modesty and speaks of concealing adornment; Muslims interpret those passages differently. I also do not read it as saying women are lesser than men.
The first place I saw two men holding hands in public was Karachi, Pakistan, in the mid-1990s. They were likely friends, but perhaps they were more than friends.
Islam is an Abrahamic religion. Muslims revere many figures also familiar from Jewish and Christian scriptures, including Abraham and Jesus, as prophets.
Get this, Islamophobes: Muslims believe Muhammad was the final prophet. In my Shia faith, we also believe that the Imam-e-Zamana—the Twelfth Imam, a messianic figure—will return and usher in an age of justice and peace.
Joann, I doubt you or your friends will change your minds because of this post. But I hope someone else will read it and see how much history and human experience gets flattened by your claim. I’m sharing only a small part of what I know.
Karen Armstrong, a former Catholic nun, has written widely about Islam and the history of religions. Her books offer a thoughtful place to start. Read them.
