Letters to the Editor
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A Few Comments From A Category Which, Of Course, Does Not Exist: Muslim Feminist Intellectual Woman On How To Support Humanist Values & Democracy In Muslim Societies
I thought I might break form and quote from a Muslim feminist intellectual academic woman from Southeast Asia delivering a keynote address at "The Rights of Women in Islam and Muslim Societies" (of course there's no need to study such things, they're all just miserable & awful and getting worse) at the Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy (which is of course not real because no one in the Muslim world cares about democracy, I mean, not like we do).
Apparently Rasul-Bernardo is very concerned about preserving the liberties, equality, and democracy she feels Southeast Asian Muslim women (especially of the Moro community) have achieved while trying to push these farther. Apparently she also concludes that it is not relevant to simply talk about Islam being evil as a way to move, in this world, toward any of those goals.
MUSLIM WOMEN: HEAR US, SEE US
By Amina Rasul
http://csidonline.org/images/stories/Amina%20Rasul.pdf
I consider myself a fortunate person (in so far as Muslims can count themselves fortunate). I am a Muslim woman born in Southeast Asia. Some of you may see us as the periphery of the Islamic world but our region is home to the biggest number of Muslims in the world. Southeast Asia has a rich experience in homegrown democracy after overthrowing our colonial masters. We live in a multi-ethnic region which has a tradition of tolerance and peaceful coexistence, where men and women both play active roles in both public and private arenas. Southeast Asian Muslim women enjoy liberties denied many of our sisters in the Middle East, the heartland of Islam...
...There is a real and present danger for radicalization of Muslim communities in Southeast Asia as well in the rest of the Islamic world, especially in the context of their marginalization and unaddressed grievances.
How to best neutralize violent extremism? If there is only one answer to this question I think it is genuine democratization. A meaningful democracy can easily address the roots of terrorism. It is said that the hand that rocks the cradle, rocks the world. If this is true, and if we truly care for the democratization of our communities, we must start with the women. In many ways, the role of women in our communities is the litmus test for stable, democratic, just societies. And stable, democratic, just societies can best deal with extremism.
There is a prevailing misconception that democracy is Western and therefore might be used as tool for colonization. Hence, the perception that democracy and Islam are incompatible should be continuously discussed, if not resolved. It is critical to show that Islam can be a source of democratic values, and this can be done through an intra-Islamic conference that should include elites and masses, as well as moderates and extremists, in our Muslim communities – as CSID is doing.
Furthermore, there is a need to be sensitive to the diverse historical and cultural contexts of Muslim communities. While democracy and Islam may be compatible, the kind of democracy for Muslims in SEA or in Iraq should be specific to the needs and aspirations of the Islamic communities concerned. Cultural practices must also be distinguished from Islam as a religion.
To promote peace and strengthen the voices of the silent majority, we need to reinforce civil society, respect for civilian authority, respect for the rights of all members of our communities – men and women. We need to fight for our human rights, women’s rights.
To promote peace and strengthen democracy, it is important to recognize the need to empower women in Muslim communities while maintaining their Muslim identity, to provide them access to both political and economic power, to address the injustices not just committed by government but also by Muslims in power, to revisit the codification of the Shari’a to ensure equality for all.
We need to emphasize that the struggle for democracy must be a collaboration between and among Muslims and non-Muslims, minority or majority groups, who are all advocates of the politics of inclusion and living in open societies.
Helping the progressives, the Liberals, the moderates gain the upper hand in their contest with the Islamists for Muslim hearts and minds may well be the most important policy objective, not just in Southeast Asia, but elsewhere as well. Central to this task is to create a strong international network to unite the fractured voices of moderate Muslims. The creation of this network can provide moderates with a platform for their message and amplify their voices. Southeast Asia is unique in the Muslim world in that there is already in place a dense structure of moderate Muslim institutions. Such institutions can be instrumental in developing and disseminating a moderate narrative that contradicts the radical narrative.
Perhaps, in this respect, we in the periphery called Southeast Asia have much to share with our brothers and sisters in the heartland [i.e., undemocratic Saudi Arabia, etc.] Perhaps, our experiences in democratization and pluralism can be helpful in the transformation of Islamic communities.
In conclusion, a reminder for my sisters: Not only must we Muslim women engage the state elites, dominated by men wishing to retain the power that they currently enjoy; we must stand firm against the predominating patriarchal cultural values that continually oppress us. We must fight our exclusion from the political and economic systems.
Now, this is one person, and like all arguments, hers are of course to be evaluated on their strengths and weaknesses (and this is a brief excerpt from a keynote speech which is not an academic paper).
However, here is one real person, one real woman, in a real Muslim nation, who does not appear to believe that her cause of moderation, equality, and democracy in her society will be advanced by simplistic screeds that Islam against whom all civilized peoples must battle or die.