Fantasy Islam Vs. Reality Islam
A Muslim who sought to impose Islam on Britain sees the error of his ways -- only by being immersed in Islam in Saudi Arabia. An excerpt from Ed Hussain's book in The London Times:
I was appalled by the imposition of Wahhabism in the public realm, something I had implicitly sought as an Islamist.Part of this local culture consisted of public institutions being segregated and women banned from driving on the grounds that it would give rise to "licentiousness". I was repeatedly astounded at the stares Faye got from Saudi men and I from Saudi women.
Faye was not immodest in her dress. Out of respect for local custom, she wore the long black abaya and covered her hair in a black scarf. In all the years I had known my wife, never had I seen her appear so dull. Yet on two occasions she was accosted by passing Saudi youths from their cars. On another occasion a man pulled up beside our car and offered her his phone number.
In supermarkets I only had to be away from Faye for five minutes and Saudi men would hiss or whisper obscenities as they walked past. When Faye discussed her experiences with local women at the British Council they said: "Welcome to Saudi Arabia."
After a month in Jeddah I heard from an Asian taxi driver about a Filipino worker who had brought his new bride to live with him in Jeddah. After visiting the Balad shopping district the couple caught a taxi home. Some way through their journey the Saudi driver complained that the car was not working properly and perhaps the man could help push it. The passenger obliged. Within seconds the Saudi driver had sped off with the man's wife in his car and, months later, there was still no clue as to her whereabouts.
We had heard stories of the abduction of women from taxis by sex-deprived Saudi youths. At a Saudi friend's wedding at a luxurious hotel in Jeddah, women dared not step out of their hotel rooms and walk to the banqueting hall for fear of abduction by the bodyguards of a Saudi prince who also happened to be staying there.
Why had the veil and segregation not prevented such behaviour? My Saudi acquaintances, many of them university graduates, argued strongly that, on the contrary, it was the veil and other social norms that were responsible for such widespread sexual frustration among Saudi youth.
At work the British Council introduced free internet access for educational purposes. Within days the students had downloaded the most obscene pornography from sites banned in Saudi Arabia, but easily accessed via the British Council's satellite connection. Segregation of the sexes, made worse by the veil, had spawned a culture of pent-up sexual frustration that expressed itself in the unhealthiest ways.
Using Bluetooth technology on mobile phones, strangers sent pornographic clips to one another. Many of the clips were recordings of homosexual acts between Saudis and many featured young Saudis in orgies in Lebanon and Egypt. The obsession with sex in Saudi Arabia had reached worrying levels: rape and abuse of both sexes occurred frequently, some cases even reaching the usually censored national press.
My students told me about the day in March 2002 when the Muttawa [the religious police] had forbidden firefighters in Mecca from entering a blazing school building because the girls inside were not wearing veils. Consequently 15 young women burnt to death, but Wahhabism held its head high, claiming that God's law had been maintained.
Where Hussain goes wrong is here, a statement he expressed after students were enthusiastic about going to Britain to go bomb people:
I vowed, in my own limited way, to fight those who had hijacked my faith, defamed my prophet and killed thousands of my own people: the human race.
Wanting to kill people who don't believe in Allah isn't a hijacking of the Quran and Islam, it's adherence to them.
You're becoming monomaniacal... Not wrong, just monomaniacal. Besides, we're never permitted to tell religious people whether or not they're interpreting their own texts correctly... It's a first amendment thing. But we are permitted to tell them they're full of shit.
Crid at June 15, 2008 2:53 PM
It's hard to keep from saying that. Every day, I read about how the murderers have "hijacked" Islam. But that's not true. Islam, as directed in the Quran, is correctly practiced as a totalitarian system that requires the conversion or murder of the "infidel" and the conversion of the entire world to Sharia law.
Amy Alkon at June 15, 2008 6:39 PM
And there are plenty of examples of complacent, uneducated, or mislead followers who are not as familiar with their own "holy" writings as outsiders who study those same writings for academic purposes.
TheOtherOne at June 16, 2008 6:11 AM
I picked this up a while back. Thought you would get a kick out of it.
You Might Be Taliban if.....
Jim P. at June 17, 2008 7:48 AM
Hi Amy. I'm the one who originally brought your attention to this particular news article. I've been reading Ed Hussain's book, and I'm wondering if you've checked out his book, too? It's quite interesting.
Quizzical at July 1, 2008 8:36 PM
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