A Quiet Revolution (54 page)
Read A Quiet Revolution Online
Authors: Leila Ahmed
Tags: #Religion, #Islam, #History, #Social Science, #Customs & Traditions, #Women's Studies
Gilles Kepel,
The War for Muslim Minds,
trans. Pascale Ghazaleh (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
2004
),
154
.Gilles Kepel,
The Roots of Radical Islam,
trans. Jon Rothschild (London: Saqi,2005
), With a New Preface trans. Pascale Ghazaleh,
14
.Kepel,
War,
156
.Lawrence Wright,
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to
9
/
11
(New York: Knopf,
2006
),
179
.Wright,
Looming Tower,
179
; Kepel,
War,
156
.Kepel,
War,
156
.Poston, “Da‘wa in the West,” in
The Muslims of America,
ed. Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad (New York: Oxford University Press,
1991
),
129
–
30
.Fawaz A. Gerges,
The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global
(New York: Cam- bridge University Press,
2005
),
73
.Esposito,
Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam
(New York: Oxford Univer- sity Press,
2002
),
91
.Kepel,
Roots of Radical Islam,
14
.Esposito,
Unholy War,
90
.Wright,
Looming Tower,
56
–
57
.Kepel writes: “In
1986
, two years after his release from prison, the blind Sheik... obtained his first American visa through the CIA, which he used to attend conferences of Islamic students in the United States. Next he visited Pakistan, where he preached at Peshawar, lunched at the Saudi embassy in Islamabad, and was lionized at receptions heavily attended by Americans. The sheik was a leading figure in the campaign to recruit fighters who were ready to face martyrdom for the chance to enter paradise—and in the process bring about the fall of the Soviet system for the greater benefit of Washington, D.C.” Kepel,
Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam,
trans. Anthony F. Roberts (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
2000
),
300
–
301
.Kepel,
War,
89
.Kepel,
Jihad,
301
.Kepel,
War,
89
.Colin Miner, “Sources Claim CIA Aid Fueled Trade Center Blast,” in
Boston Herald,
January
24
,
1994
,
4
, cited in Kambiz GhaneaBassiri,
A History of Islam in Amer- ica: From the New World to the New World Order
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2010
), chapter
7
.Chalmers Johnson,
Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (
New York: Henry Holt,
2001
),
8
. Cited in Azza Karam, ed.,
Transnational Political Islam: Religion, Ideology, and Power,
foreword by John Esposito (London: Pluto,
2004
),
12
. See also Mahmood Mamdani,
Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror
(New York: Three Leaves,
2005
).As discussed in Chapter
6
. See also, for instance, Esposito,
Unholy War,
92
–
93
, and Carrie Rosefsky Wickham,
Mobilizing Islam: Religion, Activism, and Political Change in Egypt
(New York: Columbia University Press,
2002
),
153
.Zachary Lockman,
Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2004
),
233
. See in par- ticular chapter
7
, for Lockman’s analysis of this thesis; see also GhaneaBassiri,
History,
chapter
7
.
Lockman,
Contending Visions,
233
–
34
.Samuel Huntington, “Clash of Civilizations,”
Foreign Affairs
72
(
1993
):
22
–
49
; Lockman,
Contending Visions,
234
.Saad Eddin Ibrahim, “Islamic Activism and the Western Search for a New Enemy,”
Egypt, Islam, and Democracy: Critical Essays
(Cairo: American University in Cairo Press,
2002
); Roy Mottahedeh, “The Clash of Civilizations: An Islamicist’s Cri- tique,”
Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review
2
(
1996
):
1
–
26
. See also Lockman,
Contending Visions,
235
–
36
.The quotation in this and the following paragraph are from GhaneaBassiri,
History,
chapter
7
.Lockman,
Contending Visions,
254
–
55
.GhaneaBassiri,
History,
chapter
7
.Quotations in this and the following paragraph are from Lockman,
Contend- ing Visions,
255
–
57
.E.g., the George Polk Award for best TV documentary.
This and the quotation in the following paragraph are from Robert I. Fried- man, “One Man’s Jihad,”
Nation,
May
15
,
1995
,
655
–
58
.This and the quotation in the following paragraph are from Carla Hinton, “Murrah Building Bombing Shaped Muslim Organization,”
Oklahoman,
May
3
,
2008
.Leonard,
Muslims in the United States,
26
.Khaled Abou El Fadl,
The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists
(New York: HarperSanFranciso,
2005
),
5
.This as well as the quotation in the following paragraph are from
Islamic Ex- tremism: A Viable Threat to U.S. National Security,
an Open Forum at the U.S. Depart- ment of State, January
7
,
1999
. Transcript of presentation by Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani (updated). The Islamic Supreme Council of America: http://web.archive.org/web/
20060929175628
/http://www.islamicsupremecouncil.org/bin/site/wrappers/extremism_inamerica_unveiling
010799
.html. Accessed April
21
,
2010
.Kabbani also said that “extremist ideology” was spreading “very quickly into the universities through the national organizations, associations and clubs that they are es- tablishing around the universities. Most of these clubs—and they are Muslim clubs and the biggest is the national one—are being run mostly by the extremist ideology.”
Richard H. Curtiss, “Dispute Between U.S. Muslim Groups Goes Public,”
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs,
April–May
1999
,
71
,
101
. See also “Major Mus- lim Organizations Condemn Kabbani’s Statements; American Muslim Leaders Demand Retraction and Apology,” MSA-News, February
25
,
1999
. http://www.geocities.com/ CapitolHill/Senate/
8841
/cair.text. Accessed March
13
,
2008
.Laurie Goodstein, “A Nation Challenged: The Cleric, Muslim Leader Who Was Once Labeled an Alarmist, Is Suddenly a Sage,”
New York Times,
October
28
,
2001
.“A Statement on the Recent Conflict in the Middle East,”
Islamic Horizons,July–August
1990
,
8
–
9
. Cited in GhaneaBassiri,
History,
chapter
7
.This and the following quotations in the remaining paragraphs of this chapter are all from GhaneaBassiri,
History,
chapter
7
.
Prologue to Part Two
Ann Coulter, “This Is War,”
National Review Online,
September
13
,
2001
. Ac- cessed August
8
,
2010
.“Brutality Against Women and Children,” Radio Address by Laura Bush, No- vember
17
,
2001
. George Bush White House archives.gov. Accessed April
10
,
2010
.Polly Toynbee, “Was It Worth It?”
Guardian,
November
13
,
2002
.Hamid Dabashi, “Native Informers and the Making of the American Empire,”
Al-Ahram Weekly,
Online, June
1
–
7
,
2006
, issue
797
. http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/
2006
. Accessed February
20
,
2010
.
Chapter
9
. Backlash
Dana Milbank and Emily Wax, “Bush Visits Mosque to Forestall Hate Crimes; President Condemns an Increase in Violence Aimed at Arab Americans,”
Washington Post,
September
18
,
2001
.Teresa Novelino, “Leaders Pray at National Cathedral,”
ABC News,
September14
,
2001
. Accessed April
10
,
2008
.Milbank and Wax, “Bush Visits Mosque to Forestall Hate Crimes.”
Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad,
Not Quite American? The Shaping of Arab and Mus- lim Identity in the United States
(Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press,
2004
),
41
.Nadine Naber, “Look, Mohammed the Terrorist Is Coming!” in
Race and Arab Americans Before and After
9
/
11
: From Invisible Citizens to Visible Subjects,
ed. Amaney Jamal and Nadine Naber (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press,
2008
),
289
–
90
.Milbank and Wax, “Bush Visits Mosque to Forestall Hate Crimes.”
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR),
American Muslims, One Year After
9
–
11
(Washington, D.C.: CAIR,
2002
),
16
–
17
.CAIR,
American Muslims,
16
–
17
.CAIR,
American Muslims,
12
–
13
.See, for example, CAIR,
American Muslims.
See also
The Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United States,
2002
: Stereotypes and Civil Liberties
(Washington, D.C.: Coun- cil on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR Research Center,
2002
);
The Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United States,
2003
: Guilt by Association
(Washington, D.C.: Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR Research Center,
2003
); Anny Bakalian and Mehdi Bozorgmehr,
Backlash
9
/
11
: Middle Eastern and Muslim Americans Respond
(Berkeley: University of California Press,
2009
),
144
.Naber, “Look, Mohammed the Terrorist Is Coming!”
294
.Bakalian and Bozorgmehr,
Backlash,
145
–
46
.Report on Hate Crimes and Discrimination Against Arab Americans: The Post- September
11
Backlash: September
11
,
2001
to October
11
,
2002
,
Hussein Ibish, editor, Ann Steward, principal researcher (Washington, D.C.: American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Research Institute,
2003
),
64
. Attacks also occurred on college campuses, in- cluding at Harvard, where a student was attacked in Harvard Square. See Juliet J. Chung, “Harvard Grad Student Assaulted in Alleged Hate Crime,”
Harvard Crimson,
October
1
,
2001
. Other attacks on college students are mentioned in the following pages.
CAIR,
One Year After,
28
.Report on Hate Crimes,
66
.Report on Hate Crimes,
67
.Courtney Hickson, “Women Show Solidarity Wearing Hijab,”
Daily Campus,University of Connecticut, Storrs, October
2
,
2001
.Report on Hate Crimes,
135
.Report on Hate Crimes,
136
.Sandy Banks, “Donning Scarves in Solidarity,”
Los Angeles Times,
September25
,
2001
. See also CAIR,
One Year After,
16
.Alexa Capeloto, “Women Don Scarfs in Solidarity with Female Muslims; Event at Wayne State Is Like Ones Elsewhere,”
Detroit Free Press,
October
18
,
2001
.CAIR,
One Year After,
16
.Feminist Majority Foundation, “Feminist Calendar Event Description—
12
/
16
/
01
: Scarves for Solidarity,” http://www.feminist.org/calendar/cal_details.asp?id Schedule=
958
. Accessed June
10
,
2006
.Capeloto, “Women Don Scarfs in Solidarity.”
David Ian Miller, “Finding My Religion: After
9
/
11
Azadeh Zainab Sharif Started Wearing the Hijab,” March
21
,
2005
, http://articles.sfgate.com/
2005
–
03
–
21/news/
17362464
_
1
_muslim-student-muslim-women-hijab-or-scarf. Accessed April
24
,
2010
.Jiltin Hingorani, “Islam Post
9
/
11
: Islamophobia in Austin,” News
8
Austin, www.news
8
austin.com, updated November
30
,
2004
.Hingorani, “Islamophobia in Austin.”
Emily Wax, “The Fabric of Their Faith; Since Sept.
11
, Head Scarf More Mean- ingful for Many Muslim Women,”
Washington Post,
May
19
,
2002
.Wax, “Fabric of Their Faith.”
Shiasta Aziz, “Viewpoint: Why I Decided To Wear the Veil,” London, BBC News
24
, updated September
12
,
2003
.Aziz, “Viewpoint.”
Wax, “Fabric of Their Faith.”
The explanation for wearing hijab offered by the noted feminist academic Amina Wadud, for example, seems to clearly fall within these parameters. “As a descen- dent of African slave women,” she wrote, “I have carried the awareness that my ances- tors were not given any choice to determine how much of their bodies would be exposed at the auction block or in their living conditions. So I chose intentionally to cover my body as a means of reflecting my historical identity, personal dignity, and sexual in-
tegrity.” Amina Wadud,
Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam
(Oxford: Oneworld,
2006
),
221
.
Feminist critiques of the veil also continue to appear. Among the more sub- stantive of these is Marnia Lazreg,
Questioning the Veil: Open Letters to Muslim Women
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,
2009
).Bakalian and Bozorgmehr,
Backlash,
149
. See also Louise Cainkar,
HomelandInsecurity: The Arab and Muslim American Experience After
9
/
11
(New York: Sage Foun- dation,
2009
); and Jocelyne Cesari, ed.,
The Muslims in the West After
9
/
11
: Religion, Pol- itics, and Law
(London: Routledge,
2010
).Bakalian and Bozorgmehr,
Backlash,
150
–
51
.Barbie Zelizer and Stuart Allan, eds.,
Journalism After September
11
(London: Routledge,
2002
), Foreword by Victor Navasky, xiii.Suad Joseph and Benjamin D’Harlingue, “Arab Americans and Muslim Amer- icans in the New York Times, Before and After
9
/
11
,” in Jamal and Naber,
Race and Arab Americans Before and After
9
/
11
,
242
; and Amaney Jamal, “Civil Liberties and the Other- ization of Arab and Muslim Americans,” also in Jamal and Naber,
120
.Naber, “Look, Mohammed the Terrorist Is Coming!”
278
.David Cole,
Enemy Aliens: Double Standards, and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism
(New York: New Press,
2003
),
25
.Cole,
Enemy Aliens,
30
.Jamal, “Civil Liberties and the Otherization of Arab and Muslim Americans,”
115
.Doug Struck, “Canadian Was Falsely Accused, Panel Says,”
Washington PostForeign Service,
September
19
,
2006
.Ian Austen, “Harper’s Apology ‘Means the World’: Arar,”
CBC News,
January
26
,
2007
. “Canadians Fault U.S. for Its Role in Torture Case,”
New York Times,
Septem- ber
19
,
2006
.Nancy Murray, “Profiled: Arabs, Muslims, and the Post-
9
/
11
Hunt for the ‘Enemy Within,’” in
Civil Rights in Peril: The Targeting of Arabs and Muslims,
ed. Elaine C. Hagopian (Chicago: Haymarket, and London: Pluto,
2004
),
40
–
41
.“Panel discussion on the Reported Abuses of Muslim Civil Rights in America,”
Karamah, Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, http://www.karamah.org/news_
panel_discussion.htm n.d. Accessed May
16
,
2008
. The article notes that “on January
2003
Karamah joined the Journal of Law and Religion in sponsoring a panel discussion on the overall status of the civil rights of Muslims in the U.S. with emphasis on the re- cent registration requirements announced by the Immigration and Naturalization Ser- vice [INS] and the subsequent mass detentions in Los Angeles.”Report on Hate Crimes,
119
.Report on Hate Crimes,
120
–
24
.Andrea Elliott, “Battle in Brooklyn, a Principal’s Rise and Fall; Critics Cost Muslim Educator Her Dream School,”
New York Times,
April
28
,
2008
.Elliott, “Battle in Brooklyn.” See also Andrea Elliott, “Federal Panel Finds Bias in Ouster of Principal,”
New York Times,
March
12
,
2010
, in which Elliott reported thata “federal commission—the United States Equal Opportunity Commission,” acting on a complaint filed by Debbie Almontaser, found that New York City’s Department of Ed- ucation “discriminated” against Almontaser when they forced her to resign in
2007
. The commission found that the Department “succumbed to the very bias the creation of the school was intended to dispel and a small segment of the public succeeded in imposing its prejudices on D.O.E. as an employer.”
Jane Kramer, “The Petition: Israel, Palestine, and a Tenure Battle at Barnard,”
New Yorker,
April
14
,
2008
,
53
,
50
.Kramer, “Petition,”
56
–
57
.A Message to Alumnae from President Judith Shapiro, November
11
,
2006
. Barnard Alumnae Affairs, Barnard College, New York.American Association of University Professors (AAUP)
2003
–
04
CommitteeA Report, Chair, Joan Wallach Scott. http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/comm/rep/A/
2003
–04
-CommAreport.htm. Accessed April
23
,
2010
.Joan W. Scott, “Middle East Studies Under Siege,”
Americans for Middle East Understanding
30
, no.
1
(
January–March
2006
). http://www.ameu.org/printer.asp?iid=
265
&aid=
575
. Accessed April
23
,
2010
.American Association of University Professors, “Joan Wallach Scott on Threats to Academic Freedom,” interview in
Academe Online
2005
. http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/
2005
/SO/Feat/scot.htm?PF=
1
. Accessed June
24
,
2008
. See also “Prince- ton Panelists Share Cautionary Tales of Dangers to Academic Freedom,”
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs,
December
2005
,
46
–
48
.“The Horowitz Corner,” August
28
,
2007
.
www.frontpagemag.com. AccessedJanuary
6
,
2010.“Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week,” Terrorism Awareness Project, informa- tion sheet.
http://www.terrorismawareness.org/islamo-fascism-awareness-week/. Ac- cessed July
26
,
2009
.Barbara Ehrenreich, “It’s Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week!”
Nation,
October22
,
2007
.This and the quotation in the following paragraph are from Katha Pollitt, “David Horowitz, Feminist?”
Nation,
November
1
,
2007
.