Whether this is your third, fourth or fifth day of Ramadan (#MoonWarsđ ), Ramadan mubarak to you and yours! Letâs jump right in with the latest.
Follow the money. A new documentary from Al Jazeera investigates the tens of millions of dollars in âdark moneyâ powering the rapid growth of the U.S. Islamophobia industry. đ Some more recommended reading on this topic: Nathan Leanâs book âThe Islamophobia Industry,â the Center for American Progressâ report Fear Inc and its interactive web companion, and these factsheets on major players, by Georgetownâs Bridge Initiative. Also keep an eye out for Jordan Denari Duffnerâs upcoming book, to be published in 2020.
Speaking of IslamophobesâŠSam Harris. WIRED had a great feature on why Harris and other New Atheists havenât actually transcended tribalism and cognitive biases, as theyâre so eager to believe.
Not a good look for Wajahat Ali. By now, youâve probably seen his piece in the Atlantic, âA Muslim Among Israeli Settlers,â as well as the ensuing meltdown on Muslim Twitter. The reaction is also part of a long, ongoing debate in over whether Muslims should engage in dialogue with Zionist groups, like the Muslim Leadership Initiative. Through MLI, the Shalom Hartman Institute funds Muslims to travel to Jerusalem to study Zionism and Judaism. Ali and his (also Pakistani!) compatriots Rabia Chaudry and Haroon Moghul have participated in this controversial program. For some background, hereâs a 2014 article AJ+âs Sana Saeed wrote on the MLI and âfaithwashing.â Like Ali, I come from a Pakistani Muslim family. Unlike Ali, though, I know Pakistani and Palestinian voices are not interchangeable. So Iâll defer to Saeed again:
đŹđŹGot a lot to say, & will say it, but for now: people in our Muslim American community need to stop uplifting American Muslims who throw Palestinians under the bus and use their Muslim identity in the most vacuous ways possible that serve no purpose other than career opportunism.
May 10, 2018Remember when we were scared about America setting up Muslim mass internment camps? Well, Chinaâs already there. And apparently authorities in the heavily Muslim region of Xinjiang have gone beyond your basic detention camp - these are straight-up indoctrination camps, complete with torture and Communist brainwashing. A U.S. commission has called the secretive cultural cleansing campaign âthe largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today.â The details are pretty chilling. Have you heard about any initiatives or statements from U.S. Muslims about Chinaâs war on terror?
Name your source, please. VICE published a personal essay titled âLike Many Young Muslims, I Fake Fasting During Ramadan.â đ± Umm. What. By âmany young Muslims,â do you mean Muslims under the age of 9? Some tried to defend this piece by telling me that ex-Muslims also deserve representation, whichâŠokay, but should you call yourself Muslim while talking about being an atheist in a Muslim household? đ€ Itâs just a piece of clickbait, of course, but it brings up some bigger questions about Islam as identity vs. religion.
Have you ever heard of taqiyya? If so, chances are you learned about it via an angry commenter, not your mosqueâs Sunday school. The obscure theological concept has been weaponized to refute anything Muslims say as deception. When Ben Carson, in 2015, told Meet the Press that he couldnât support a Muslim becoming president, he pointed at taqiyya, which he described as âa component of Sharia that allows, and even encourages you to lie to achieve your goals.â Slate talked to Imam Omar Suleiman about what the phrase does - and doesnât - mean. In April, BuzzFeed put together a great explainer on the term as well.
If humans colonized MarsâŠhow long would Martian Muslims fast in Ramadan? Mustafa Akyol looks at the case of Muslims in Reykjavik, Iceland, where the fasting time will be as long as 22 hours, to discuss the varying levels of literalism in theologiansâ interpretation of the Quran throughout history.
đ Shout out to Believers Bail Out
Believers Bail Out, which launched as Ramadan began, collects zakat payments to help curb mass incarceration. Particularly, organizers wants to bail out Muslims in pretrial incarceration at Chicagoâs Cook County Jail â as a form of zakat.
Itâs a little controversial, but the scholars they work with say that bail relief is indeed eligible for zakat. They base that mostly on the Quranâs direction to use alms to help the poor and free slaves and captives from bondage.
âWe see the system of bail as one of the contemporary forms of bondage,â Maryam Kashani, a Believers Bail Out organizer, told me. âSo this is one way we can practice what was an active part of being Muslim in the early days of Islam.â
They also point to the inherent racism and classism of the money bail system, its repudiation of the presumption of innocence, and the regular denial of religious rights for Muslim inmates. In Ramadan, that mistreatment can often ramp up, according to the New York Times. Just this week, the ACLU sent a letter to New Mexico state prisons and ICE facilities addressing complaints from Muslim inmates, who say corrections staff wonât allow them communal prayers, halal food and meals for suhoor and iftar.
Read more about Believers Bailout in my recent article for RNS. You can send your zakat to the project through LaunchGood, where theyâve raised $13,213 already, or check/PayPal. đž
đ Source requests
While Iâve got your attention, Iâm going repeat a source request for an upcoming articles. Hereâs what Iâm looking for:
Muslims who suffer from sleeping disorders: insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea or any other sort of sleep disturbance.
In the meantime, keep an eye out for a new piece on Ramadan and environmentalism.
đŁ Talk to me
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, I would love to hear them. Otherwise, see you at the end of the month, inshaâAllah!
- Aysha