A List of Who Not to Learn Islam From?
Looking at Islam through a cross disciplinary lens:
On October 7th, 2019, veteran Muslim American Mansoor tweeted out a list of people titled, “Who NOT to learn Islam from.” On November 26th, 2019 he did it again. The tweet received mixed reaction, including my own.
The first time I supported the tweet on the premise that unless Muslims brave speaking critically of our theology, others will do it for us. Seeing the tweet again, it’s time to unpack the question of who not to learn Islam from.
Both times, the list is simple and there is no follow up thread. It doesn’t offer any more conversation that distinguishes one person on the list from another. It’s an incomplete conversation and it was my mistake to support the initial tweet without taking the time to unpack it in my own thread. So I will do that here.
To tweet that same list twice now (two unique tweets instead of simply a retweet of the original tweet) without further context, makes the list less of a confessional Muslims can align with and more of an attack. So let’s talk about that list.
The Intention Behind the Original Tweet?
For whatever their merits or criticisms the fact is that as far as I know, no one on that list has studied Islamic theology in full spirit of scholarship, as a student of theology, and/or with a reputable teacher in the faith. If I am wrong, please correct me.
As someone who continues to study privately, studied with Sheikh Uthman of Critical Loyalty, and put myself through a gauntlet of critique including critical self-review, at this stage it’s becomes easier to discriminate between someone who has and has not studied Islam. Someone who has studied Islam without looking to weaponize it, speaks differently. They tend to step out of their echo chamber. They ask more questions. They tend to be less combative.
Immersing myself in the journey that is Muslim Reform has shaped me more than I could have shaped Islam. If you’re a seeker, if you’re looking to understand a subject, there is some way in which you’re shaped by that experience. Whereas initially I had a very aggressive tone toward Islam, over time my questions sharpened and my tongue softened. Instead of a hammer to nail approach fueled by emotion or rage, I prefer the path of Stoicism with more refined and precise reflection.
I’m filled with questions I’m always experimenting with answers for by looking at Islam through a cross disciplinary lens:
What does it mean to look at Islam through the lens of human rights?
Is the 21st century a harbinger for Islamic enlightenment?
Why are we experiencing the most chaotic outburst of religious fanaticism today, during the most innovative period in modern history?
How can we use the tapestry of Islam’s Origin Story to weave a new narrative?
How can we look to past Islamic civilizations as a torch for moving out of the darkness of religious death cults?
How can we undo some of the knots using ancient pathways?
How can we use empathy to heal human vulnerability without being naive?
The Quran is a layer cake. Can the text be used as a vessel for navigating the crisis of civilization?
If you compare the person today asking these questions and speaking in this evolved language, with the person I was over a decade ago when I first started out in reform, you would think it was two different people. An evolution takes place and it has to take place; it doesn’t stop.
How the List Misses the Mark, Especially When It’s Tweeted Twice.
The people who drive these conversations are just as important as the conversations themselves. We’re not just looking at what Islam is or was, we also need to look at who we are. And if you’re not interested in people, in understanding and humanizing them, then I’m afraid you’re missing what’s really important here. What’s really important here isn’t religion; it’s people.
Are we looking at how people are changing over time, or have we boxed them in the same way we complain they’ve boxed us or their interpretation of our faith in? I would argue that it is more valuable that we understand and humanize each other, that we start learning how to get along and work together, than it is to shield Islam within some forcefield. Something that isn’t challenged, cannot evolve and thrive. I would also argue that Islam is an organic idea. It (and we) do better when challenged. Discourse and debate over Islam (or any idea for that matter) shouldn’t be kept in some bubble like some insipid organism that cannot survive a contagion: the 21st century.
Some people on that list of “who not to learn Islam from” have shown depth, inquiry, and journey — and it’s deeply unfair to presume carte blanche to paint each individual in a broad stroke of the collective. As Muslims, we don’t like it when it’s done to us so why do it to another?
Let’s look at some of the people on that list who were treated unfairly. Perhaps they all were, but this is who I can speak of based on association and familiarity with their work.
Sam Harris — While I don’t agree with everything Sam Harris says, I do respect his own story of inquiry that led him to become who he is today. The type of questions Sam raises, the type of guests he brings on, tells us that’s someone who isn’t resting on the laurels of celebrity. He’s still very much asking questions. He’s still very much searching.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali — While I don’t agree with some of her views, and I don’t think that poor personal experience is the totality of a faith as is the case with some ex-Muslims, she has significantly shifted her views over time. Ali went from someone who didn’t believe in reform to someone who did. I am more aligned with who she is today than who she was even just five years ago.
Robert Spencer — Spencer doesn’t seem to have changed from the first time I learned of him over 17 years ago. However, even Robert Spencer has value. When I first started asking about Islam, there was nothing out there that I could dig into that let me look at Islam with a critical eye. Social media hadn’t yet become a portal for learning and connectivity. But there was Robert Spencer’s work and it throws you into the deep end of a niche Islamic interpretation that is the other side of the jihad coin. There wasn’t anywhere I could go to at that time in the so called “Muslim world” that would be honest with me about the short comings of our faith that has inspired so much psychopathy in the name of relgion. From there, it was my job to work through those knots. Robert Spencer also presents Muslims with a foil, a character so immersed in a rigid narrative that that narrative can be leaned on to build the counter narrative.
Laura Loomer — Loomer is another who has to be looked at through multiple lenses. I don’t agree with her on a lot of the basic principles of Islam, but I do respect her as a voice who tries to draw attention to Islamist figures with incredible courage. Loomer and I have gotten to be friends over the last year and every single act of engagement has been very supportive of the other. If in a call for example, if she shares some inconsequential detailed that I don’t necessarily agree with, I don’t need to fight her on it. I listen. On the same note, if I say something she might not agree with, she listens. There is no need to be combative and defensive, but there is a need to start listening to each other.
Steven Emerson — Emerson might not be the person to learn ‘Islam as a faith’ from, but he’s the person to go to if you’re looking to understand the complex structures of the dark underbelly Islam has given rise to: the terror networks. His website, The Investigative Project on Terrorism, is one of the best sources for in-depth analysis on issues that impact Islam. You will never learn about that through any traditional Islamic study or through anyone who can otherwise teach on the theology in principle. If you want to study the faith, you we can’t cherry pick what makes us feel warm and fuzzy. We must stare into the abyss.
There’s also a vignette of Emerson and my mother at a wedding where they were both guests. My mom has zero interest in my work and no understanding of our world, but she’s a Pakistani woman who loves cooking. Emerson was trying to navigate the Pakistani cuisine at the buffet. Here’s a 6-foot something white-haired man next to a four-foot nothing Pakistani woman who delighted and took pride in being able to lead the conversation. And he stood there, engaged her, listened respectfully. And I watched from a distance. It was beautiful and human. We forget that ever single one of us is human; we’re not super heroes and super villains. We are human first.
Each of these people raise hard and necessary questions about Islam. Given the London Bridge terror attack a few days ago that intersects on so many avenues, how much longer can we keep ignoring these questions.
More importantly, why aren’t we raising these questions ourselves and working to answer them together rather than crying foul.
These Issues Deserve to be Led With Humanity.
Asa Muslim Reformer, my role is to stand on the horizon of human experience and look at things as objectively as possible. As Muslims with some legitimate frustrations in how Islam and Muslims are talked about, it doesn’t help if we start marginalizing and labeling other people without looking to have a conversation with them, understand them, and find their value.
And above all, we have to take off our armor. We have to start being willing to feel. Just like our skin responds to the warmth of the sun, the piercing sensation of cold — in the same way we have to be able to feel each other, to give pause and observe our own reactions, our thoughts, the process of how our mind resists or envelopes a new thought. We can’t do that if we’re only operation from within the ecosystem of our own reality.
In a follow up tweet from the public asking who we can learn Islam from, Mansoor directs the tweeter to his website where he shares resources. Unfortunately those resources lean toward Ahmadi Muslim publications mixed with the propaganda reports attacking the conservative right. I’m deeply disappointed; the response to feeling like you’re not being heard or seen isn’t to not hear or see another. Relying on propaganda reports and filtering the totality of the Islamic faith through just your sect is omission of another. We don’t shift the needle by mirroring the same behavior frustrates us.
We have a duty to do better, which I feel Mansoor does understand considering he routinely leads with integrity on discussing the American Muslim experience, especially as a veteran and a member of an oppressed minority in the faith.
Islamic teachings tell us not to condemn behavior, not people. However, shooting out an attack list without any further context is a form of condemning a list of people without (I’m guessing) ever having had a real conversation with anyone on that list.