Radical Muslim Thought Experiment

i'm now at a commuter university and this place is boring. i want to start a discussion circle about muslim culture to try to rile things up down here. i've named it: RADICAL MUSLIM THOUGHT EXPERIMENT. i want to post up fliers all over campus with a list of outrageous topics, a time and place to meet, and see who shows up. the discussion circle would be a place to talk about anything you ever wanted to get muslims to think about but were afraid of getting shot by a ______. ...here are my ideas some topics this semester, would you come if you saw this list? #1-deconstructing ugly: discussing meanings of beauty, then seeing if it exists among muslims; #2-love movement and a heretic ghazali brother: discussing a concept of love based on classic persian muslim thought; #3-examining wahhabism salafism izm skizm: islam's protestant reformation or murderous extremism, you decide; #4-muslim jazz and black power islam: h.rap and other experiments in crafting an indigenous american islam; #5-identity crisis, serching for a nisbah: american-muslim, american of indian descent, or just al-amriki; #6-dude, this mullah sucks: leading a revolt against a local imam, the imam husayn's shia and ibn zubayr factor; #7-muslims and music, who says its against islam: listening to and discussing junoon, mos def, everlast, and islam themed songs; #8-mun kunto mawla, ali ul mawla: listening to, discussing and getting mustt mustt with qawali; #9-picturing rasul allah: idolatry and the issue of drawing images, discussing the fatwas and persian miniature paintings.

BRODISC

Recently many of us who are discussing an activity dealing with women in islam were asked to move the discussion elsewhere. the discussion is taking place on BRODISC. Usman started the "Concerned in Texas" list to get folks to discuss what the "heck" is going on with muslims post 9/11. We used it to share our outrage, to possibly make some sort of change, at least in our own thought. to discuss, if not to DO something about what was going on in our community. maybe people have Detailed Action Plans for doing something that may actually work. maybe a discussion turns to the"details" of a proposed plan. sometimes its extremely helpful to get comments from as many people as possible, even those who only have "2 cents" nothing more. i think he'll agree that these details are really just more "ideas". the beauty of the forum is that just one simple random post DOES have the power to turn any discussion towards a BETTER direction. But while discussing the women in islam event he said:"The details of this event or revolutions need not be discussed among the 70+ ppl here... The ideas to be disseminated is another thing altogether... thats the purpose of this forum." How do you define details? if its time, place, etc. i agree, a group of volunteers for any ones idea can move elsewhere to discuss THOSE types of details. But what else does "details" include? Is BRODISC yet another place for propogating ("disseminating") preplanned agendas and activities? for those who are clear with EXACTLY what they want to do and how to do it, to simply come and get suckers to join them? suckers from among the 70+ people. should our discussion be simply "i agree" or "i don't agree"? what about asking for a more democratic type exchange regarding a possible solution? aren't we bound to run into discussing certain "details"?he said: "Now having said that, if ppl want to discuss the details, thats fine.... up to you, as long as you think the discussion is relevant to the group in general..." again, i can see how a back and forth about event time and location can be moved elsewhere, and we can leave room in everyone's inbox for discussing more "ideas". but how am i to know what is relevent to this silent majority. i don't know them, only a few of us actually post what we think on the list. what if the only relevent people are the ones participating. Hmm... it seems relevent if a post gets a good response, which the women in islam event is getting. if anything really bothers any of the 70+ they should post their objection to the list rather than complaining to the moderator in private. i joined it because there were/are some great people on the list that have the power to go beyond talk. i don't know why others joined. when i joined we were discussing ideas that may lead to revolutions, so why should we cut the discussions short worrying about what a silent majority thinks is relevent or not? Maybe his intentions and methods for this list narrowed? if they have, i find little use for BRODISC. i'm not in it to participate in discussions about neo-con conspiracy posts that go nowhere, there are other things MORE "relevent" to muslim thought or civilization for me.

leading an event

a group of us were discussing organizing a conference on women and islam, when usman said:"...BTW, what did I tell you Monem... no one stepped up to take the lead on the conference... if only we could wager..."... - his call for some type of leader for this was hasty. it was a bad call. we have not progressed beyond the discussion stage. WHO NEEDS A LEADER to discuss - in the discussions so far we have not decided to do anything specific. what effort am i being called to step up and lead? an anti-wahhabi ISNA masjid revolution, a simple innovative conference, or a progression of the discussion taking place among a small group of texas activists? its still a discussion about a POSSIBLE event to solve a problem that was still under DISCUSSION, and it was just starting to pick up steam and get more focused. people DO step up when things are clearly defined and a call for action is made. someone made a bad vague call in the beginning and no one responded. it was made clearer by mairaj- AND WE RESPONDED. the call was made by monem to get volunteers to a general cause- AND WE RESPONDED. everything else is still under discussion. i believe, you made a call for the wrong thing at the wrong time. in the real world, when the time is right monem (as the isna dude) can appoint a conference chair, or the volunteers can nominate one among themselves. and from among the volunteers so far, there is NOT a single one of US who will back off from taking action for a good cause. I can make excuses too: "oh, i really don't feel like chairing THIS particular committee, cuz...my real passion is for doing...; or, i have other responsibilities like...; or, my time is limited due to..." etc etc etc. Many people WILL give valid excuses, but it only takes ONE in a committee of volunteers who will not! and he should NOT have put people in a position to say NO to lead something so vague. When no one comes forward, it only disheartens the folks that had volunteered to do something good only in its infancy stage. SOME of us ex-UT MSA volunteers and officers ACTUALLY have led and organized before and are READY do it again. peace.

upcoming topics

ideas for possible thinking out loud posts: post 1- "nice pants!" muslim courting rituals in america among the 2nd generation, my thoughts on the after-hours lobby culture of ISNA; post 2- "identity crisis" as an advisor to a local youth group, i would like to expand upon some ideas i have about the question of IDENTITY.

islamic erotica

dr. sherman jackson mentioned erotic literature in a talk about the need for american muslims to produce culture. many at the muslim student retreat he said this at had no idea what he was talking about, not having read any erotica (being the pious muslims that we are). i too have no idea what he was talking about, because i have yet to read real islamic erotica. i have a translation of a book attributed to the great classical scholar Imam Suyuti my library. it is simply perverted a european orientalist attempt to give his society lady readers (the same people who popularized the erotic arabian nights) some entertaining literature and gain points with the chicks who want an "experienced" man. it tells us more about orientalists and victorian england's high society than it does about imam suyuti's teachings on marriage-love and his islamic law of sexual positions, if he ever had such a thing. but it's all we have in english along with Ibn Hazm's "Ring of the Dove" and the work known as the arabic kama sutra "Perfumed Garden" translated by Burton (it's online). Some muslims find erotica offensive. ...there are those who say, "dude, i don't have to see it for my self to know [____](insert haram object) is wrong." i say you DO if you want to make a judgement about it. you can always say "i don't know, i've never seen [_____]." i say if we're dealing with the topic of producing "islamic culture" in a new context like america, we need to understand the things we make judgements about. we complain about some dude giving a fatwa about life in america without KNOWING the details right? so what's the difference here? I agree with dr. jackson, erotica should be a part of the cultural production of american muslims. I'm looking forward to it. I hope he's advocated this at lectures where open minded writers are present.