A friend of mine recently sent me a video of a huge anti-Israel crowd in a US city marching with violent anti-Semitic slogans and Allah Akbar at repeated intervals. He said he though the Jews were a powerful minority group in the US, and main supporters of the ruling Democratic Party. Jews, of course have powerful connections with the Republicans as well. But the civil society controlled by many intellectuals, particularly, academicians in prestigious educational institutions like the Harvard, Yale and many others were seen on the side of the Jihadis, supporting programs like the BDS espoused by the pro-Palestine Islamic pressure groups. This was my reply to him!
Islamism in the West has an almost 70-year history, dating back to when the first members of the Muslim Brotherhood, either students pursuing graduate studies in Western universities or senior leaders fleeing persecution in their home countries, arrived in Europe and North America in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Since then, activists linked to various branches of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab world and other movements from the Indian sub-continent (Jemaat-e-Islami) and Turkey that belong to the broad family of political Islam have established a stable presence in the West. These movements have since evolved ideologically and organizationally, and, despite their still relatively small size, they have become disproportionally influential forces in the West’s heterogeneous Muslim communities.
Islamization of the entire society and installation of an Islamic government ruling based on sharia cannot realistically be achieved in the West, where Muslims constitute just a small minority. Western Islamists go on disseminating their politico-religious worldview inside Western Muslim communities and in the hope of influencing Western policies and debates on pertinent issues as two more suitable goals.
The new generation of Western Islamists have indeed made inroads in political, media and civil society circles. By largely shedding Islamist tropes and adopting progressive frames and causes, young Western Islamists have forged strong alliances in mainstream society and have come to be widely accepted in Western establishment circles. Many of them have therefore come to run as candidates in political parties, write op-eds in influential newspapers, and appear in debates on mainstream media; forge alliances with a broad array of progressive organizations and thought leaders; receive grants from respected foundations and governmental agencies. Many of today's Islamists use frames, embrace causes and make alliances that puzzle everybody! Observers have begun to refer to this trend as “woke Islamism”. You would have heard about the Arab Americans, all of whom are female, elected to the U.S. House of Representatives: Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, Ilhan Omar, Donna Shalala and Rashida Tlaib- all Democrats! No Muslim has ever served in the United States Senate so far. These women talk as if they are Arab nationals, not US citizens!
You can see that the the American left has pushed faith to the margins considering that Muslims consider the idea of liberalism to be a version of atheism! The war on terrorism, U.S. government surveillance of Muslims, and the Trump administration’s “Muslim ban”perhaps contributed to this Liberal-Left-Muslim comraderie. issues.
Islamophobia, surveillance, and the securitization of Muslim communities has become an issue of the political left, which draws parallels between the experience of ethnic minorities such as African Americans and imagined Muslim communities elsewhere- well, in India for example! A lot of Arab money has, I assume, come into this!
There is a strong anti-Israel BDS movement - Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led one promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel like those against South Africa during apartheid.
Now look at a strange phenomenon: The left has historically been opposed to organized religion, believing its conservatism entrenches and justifies inequality and its communalism is a threat to individual liberty. But you see a puzzling though strong linkage between the political left and Muslim groups whether in the US or in India! These are scary situations!
No comments:
Post a Comment