Episode 105: What does it mean to be “religious?”
Transcript for Episode 105:
Shownotes for Episode 105:
In this episode, we turn from “religion” to think about “religious.”
We had a number of keywords this time! Find them in our glossary. They were:
ritual, religious, hajj
Primary Sources:
Megan (second from right!), at the “The Crisis in the Catholic Church and the Future of Investigative Reporting” panel.
In this week’s Primary Sources, Megan talked about her research (found in her forthcoming book, Abusing Religion!), her experiences growing up Catholic, and how she continues to wrestle with what it means to have left the Church—while the Church keeps her on their baptismal records of active Catholics.
She specifically talked about a panel she participated in titled “The Crisis in the Catholic Church and the Future of Investigative Reporting.” Is being religious, she asks, a choice? And if so, whose choice is it?
She also shouted out the film, Spotlight, which is based on the investigative journalism of her panel-mates. Check it out if you haven’t already, but since its topic is sex abuse, all relevant content warnings apply.
Ilyse talked about being religious in terms of claiming an identity (Sephardic) that has racialized markers as a way to make sense of her ambiguous, adopted self (that is, not Ashkenazi). Girlfriend ate rice during Passover (a good decade before the rules changed) as a claim to legitimate religious practice & 100% tormented her siblings about it.
One of these humans is adopted and weaponized rice. Guess which one?
Story Time:
Ilyse’s close reading this episode was Catherine Bell’s classic, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice.
Here’s the quoted excerpt:
“Ritualization is a matter of various culturally specific strategies for setting off some activities from others, for creating and privileging a qualitative distinction between the ‘sacred’ and the ‘profane,’ and for ascribing to such distinctions to realities thought to transcend the powers of human actors.” (Bell 1992: 74)
The 101:
We spent a ton of time doing what Ilyse sardonically calls “shock and awe” in her classrooms: a dump of information meant not to be absorbed at all once but specifically designed to overwhelm, as a way to demonstrate how much we don’t know (and, therefore, why we should learn more, hold our judgements, and rethink our assumptions).
She did a modified shock and awe right on the pod about hajj. Here’s an image that might help visualize all the smaller rituals she listed that comprise the major ritual/pilgrimage of hajj (via Al Jazeera).
Your homework for Episode 105:
We talked all episode about being religious through the lens, mostly, of hajj—one example of how folks participate in religion, a ritual that demands proving one’s religion (to get a visa), and that most folks assume is strictly religious. Staying on theme, Ilyse and Megan assigned work about religious practices and Islamic ritual.
Ilyse cited Catherine Bell and also:
Sophia Rose Arjana’s Pilgrimage in Islam (2017) is a really lovely, easy read about Muslim pilgrimage that includes but is not limited to the most famous one.
Michael Wolfe’s One Thousand Roads to Mecca is a set of primary source accounts of hajj, from 1050 CE to the 1990. There’s fewer accounts from women than I’d like to see, but it is comprehensive and comprehensible!
Malcolm X’s hajj narrative appears in this book, too, though it is originally part of his autobiography. For a great set of essays on Malcolm X, see Sapelo Square.
Watch PBS’ most recent comparative pilgrimage series Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler (2014). It has weak moments—some that border on and some that straight up are Orientalist—but overall this is a solid series.
Check out the Saudi Embassy’s rules about hajj just to show some of the regulations American Muslims would navigate!
Want to hear about hajj from someone else? Great. Here’s some options:
Identity Politics Pod is a fantastic podcast about race, religion, Islam, gender and America. Episode 35: Spiritual Survivor is all about hajj.
See Something, Say Something podcast is another gem. In this episode, the pod gets at #MosqueMeToo, harassment on hajj, and modes of making holy spaces.
And because I’m an historian and want y’all to be too, here’s a podcast from our colleagues at Ottoman History Podcast that narrativizes the experiences of a Bosnian Muslim’s pilgrimage just after WWII.
Think religious practices are immune to current events? C’mon, nerds, y’all know better. Some news on how COVID-19 has limited pilgrimage and threatens to cancel hajj this year.
Megan echoed Ilyse’s suggestion of Malcolm X, but specifically warned readers to be critical about race, racialization, and assumptions about him. She also assigned:
Michael Muhammad Knight’s Blue Eyed Devil (2009), in which Knight seeks and creates American Islamic pilgrimage(s).
Because being religious is impacted by the bodies in which we exist, Megan pointed us to Mona Eltahawy’s account of sexual assault on hajj as a teen. Find her thread here. Find reporting about her account and the accounts of others here and here.
Hasan Minhaj’s Netflix series, Patriot Act, if you’re not already watching, for politics, religion, being Muslim, being religious. Specifically, check out his bit on Saudi Arabia.