Looking Through the Eyes of the Other
Apr. 9th, 2006 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_roseIt's rare for me to say that I've come from Teresa Nielsen Hayden's Weblog feeling vaguely ill.
It's not just the hosts of Making Light that make me go back there so much. Most of the commentors are fabulous people. But there is a discussion of a Dan Simmons piece of propaganda on the open thread. (I don't dignify it as a story, though it pretends to be a piece of fiction -- as one commentor pointed out, making it much harder to respond to and challenge, as the writer can say the character voices are obviously biased.) What troubled me is how even those opposed to the political view espoused seem to be, once again, conflating "terrorist", "Islam", and "Middle-Eastern state with a hatred of the West". The more conscious were resisting falling into this tendency even as I saw parts of it slip under the radar. The more aware were using Islamist, which is to Islam as Christianist is to Christian - a term for those using a distorted version of a faith to support their power-mongering war-hungry position. However, the terms Islamist and Christianist aren't in common usage yet, and a fast reader could miss the nuance and see only the root word.
Not unusually, too, the whole thing has partly wandered off into a discussion of reliable narrators and reliable characters on one hand, and a discussion of historic Spain, with the question of whether there has ever been an Islamic country that is simultaneously undivided politically and tolerant of other faiths.
What was odd was that I was starting to notice these barbs, the deliberate and the careless, as I would if I were one of those of whom they spoke. Because I spent this afternoon in a mosque, hearing the Call to Prayer, watching a serene woman do her afternoon prayer, then hearing her speak about what it is she believes. Shaheena is the mother of Omar, with whom we began our discussions last week (And who did the Call to Prayer for our unfamiliar ears), but this time, we came to them.
She talked about language; how the words of her religion are misused in media. About how, after weeks of speaking to public gatherings across the city after 9/11, not about what Islam is, but about what it is not, she was told she'd begun walking hunched, under the weight and the worry of being so long on the defensive. She told us how she began to teach her son, Omar, of his religion, by telling him stories of the prophets, right back to the days of Abraham and Isaac. Another of the neighjbourhood boys would sit with Omar, listening -- and one day Craig's parents stopped her to say that Craig's grandparents were very impressed by him, since he could tell them all these "Bible stories" so very well already.
She told us how she loved Mohammed, with a depth in her voice which I have not heard the most fervent Christian use for Jesus. I do not doubt the Christian's love for Jesus, but truly, I have heard few professions of love this plainly sincere in *any* medium. I couldn't say i loved my mother, or Colin, with half that fervour. She explained just how hurtful it was to see him desecrated, not because it was an insult to her faith, but because how could she stand by and watch someone she loved so much get insulted?
And yet, when asked why some people of her faith could demand death for such a thing -- though she paused long enough to say plain that yes, not everyone who is a Muslim is a good person, and that there are many who use it to evil end -- she touched on that truth only long enough to show she was neither unaware nor in denial about what other Muslims have done (Just as I am aware of Pat Robertson's calls for assassination).
Then she moved into her real answer: she told stories of Mohammed, beaten and bleeding, told by the very angels of God that they could, at his word and his request, take the whole of the mountain and smite his enemies - and Mohammed refused. That each day as he went about his work, one woman threw garbage at him as he passed; until one day she did not. He asked her neighbours, and they told him she was ill; so he went in and tended her. This was the Prophet she loved, and the reason she loved him.
It is a writerly trick to have to sit behind the eyes of someone who is not ourselves, so that we can present them honestly. But I've never had someone else put her voice into my head so well, and so quickly. I can't explain how much of what she said I simply absorbed. It's not facts. I couldn't quote you her explanation of Sharia Law and its interpretations, though it seems to be a point she has seen misrepresented the msot often. And while I've thrown together pieces of what she said, I couldn't quote you her exact words on Mohammed, and I have misarranged the order of her tellings here to highlight the points she strove to make, without all the digressions, and awkward bits, and clumsy questions.
Then I went to a site where, when there is disagreement, I know it to be intelligent, and well intentioned,a nd passionate and knowledgeable. And I still saw through her eyes.
We try. They tried, on that site. These were people seeking to be fair, people who know that Islam is not the enemy. People who can point to the good aspects of history. People overall condemning a piece of propaganda against Shaheena's people. People trying to be a light against the ignorance and hate she talked about seeing and struggling with all across the internet, as well as in person in my own city.
We sometimes fail a little.
But I looked through her eyes, just for a moment, and there I find the light of hope she wished to ignite. Mohammed is not my prophet, though he seems a very good prophet. I could not covert to Islam, but I can see for a moment through the eyes of a woman for whom this is the right and true way.
We are indeed the People of the Book.
It's not just the hosts of Making Light that make me go back there so much. Most of the commentors are fabulous people. But there is a discussion of a Dan Simmons piece of propaganda on the open thread. (I don't dignify it as a story, though it pretends to be a piece of fiction -- as one commentor pointed out, making it much harder to respond to and challenge, as the writer can say the character voices are obviously biased.) What troubled me is how even those opposed to the political view espoused seem to be, once again, conflating "terrorist", "Islam", and "Middle-Eastern state with a hatred of the West". The more conscious were resisting falling into this tendency even as I saw parts of it slip under the radar. The more aware were using Islamist, which is to Islam as Christianist is to Christian - a term for those using a distorted version of a faith to support their power-mongering war-hungry position. However, the terms Islamist and Christianist aren't in common usage yet, and a fast reader could miss the nuance and see only the root word.
Not unusually, too, the whole thing has partly wandered off into a discussion of reliable narrators and reliable characters on one hand, and a discussion of historic Spain, with the question of whether there has ever been an Islamic country that is simultaneously undivided politically and tolerant of other faiths.
What was odd was that I was starting to notice these barbs, the deliberate and the careless, as I would if I were one of those of whom they spoke. Because I spent this afternoon in a mosque, hearing the Call to Prayer, watching a serene woman do her afternoon prayer, then hearing her speak about what it is she believes. Shaheena is the mother of Omar, with whom we began our discussions last week (And who did the Call to Prayer for our unfamiliar ears), but this time, we came to them.
She talked about language; how the words of her religion are misused in media. About how, after weeks of speaking to public gatherings across the city after 9/11, not about what Islam is, but about what it is not, she was told she'd begun walking hunched, under the weight and the worry of being so long on the defensive. She told us how she began to teach her son, Omar, of his religion, by telling him stories of the prophets, right back to the days of Abraham and Isaac. Another of the neighjbourhood boys would sit with Omar, listening -- and one day Craig's parents stopped her to say that Craig's grandparents were very impressed by him, since he could tell them all these "Bible stories" so very well already.
She told us how she loved Mohammed, with a depth in her voice which I have not heard the most fervent Christian use for Jesus. I do not doubt the Christian's love for Jesus, but truly, I have heard few professions of love this plainly sincere in *any* medium. I couldn't say i loved my mother, or Colin, with half that fervour. She explained just how hurtful it was to see him desecrated, not because it was an insult to her faith, but because how could she stand by and watch someone she loved so much get insulted?
And yet, when asked why some people of her faith could demand death for such a thing -- though she paused long enough to say plain that yes, not everyone who is a Muslim is a good person, and that there are many who use it to evil end -- she touched on that truth only long enough to show she was neither unaware nor in denial about what other Muslims have done (Just as I am aware of Pat Robertson's calls for assassination).
Then she moved into her real answer: she told stories of Mohammed, beaten and bleeding, told by the very angels of God that they could, at his word and his request, take the whole of the mountain and smite his enemies - and Mohammed refused. That each day as he went about his work, one woman threw garbage at him as he passed; until one day she did not. He asked her neighbours, and they told him she was ill; so he went in and tended her. This was the Prophet she loved, and the reason she loved him.
It is a writerly trick to have to sit behind the eyes of someone who is not ourselves, so that we can present them honestly. But I've never had someone else put her voice into my head so well, and so quickly. I can't explain how much of what she said I simply absorbed. It's not facts. I couldn't quote you her explanation of Sharia Law and its interpretations, though it seems to be a point she has seen misrepresented the msot often. And while I've thrown together pieces of what she said, I couldn't quote you her exact words on Mohammed, and I have misarranged the order of her tellings here to highlight the points she strove to make, without all the digressions, and awkward bits, and clumsy questions.
Then I went to a site where, when there is disagreement, I know it to be intelligent, and well intentioned,a nd passionate and knowledgeable. And I still saw through her eyes.
We try. They tried, on that site. These were people seeking to be fair, people who know that Islam is not the enemy. People who can point to the good aspects of history. People overall condemning a piece of propaganda against Shaheena's people. People trying to be a light against the ignorance and hate she talked about seeing and struggling with all across the internet, as well as in person in my own city.
We sometimes fail a little.
But I looked through her eyes, just for a moment, and there I find the light of hope she wished to ignite. Mohammed is not my prophet, though he seems a very good prophet. I could not covert to Islam, but I can see for a moment through the eyes of a woman for whom this is the right and true way.
We are indeed the People of the Book.
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no subject
Date: 2006-04-11 05:42 am (UTC)I think there are too many bits around the edges that need context (The central point stands by itself) for it to be a proper article, but I did think about linking to it in the very discussion that I was referring to over at Making Light.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-13 04:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-13 05:08 pm (UTC)Unfortunately, considering the point of my post, I couldn't very well avoid pointing to it.