Episode 409: You Still Don’t Know about Islam, Part 1

Transcript! (because accessibility is mandatory)

PDF transcript. Also available via our Buzzsprout page.

Shownotes! (because citations are political)

We are back back back back back again, nerds, with more HISTORY OF THE WORLD (RELIGIONS), Part 1 — the remix! On this episode, IRMF finally gets to just be her expert-in-Islam self, and Drs. Drs. Hussein Rashid and Kristian Petersen teach us about lived Islam in New York City and China.

The 101! (in which we did the professor-work)

Haven’t we already talked about Islam?

We sure have — in episodes 308, “Islam Is More than You Think It Is;” episode 105, “What Does It Mean to Be Religious?,” in which we talked about hajj; and episode 309, “Twitter, Jinns, and the Great Conjunction,” with Dr. Ali Olomi. Good memory, you! But that’s the thing about Islam being the second largest religion in the world: there’s always so much more to know.

In this episode, we cover just how expansive and diverse Islam is, including different Muslim communities (Sunni, Shia) and traditions (Sufism), and why we shouldn’t use Christian terms (like Protestant and Catholic) to understand non-Christian traditions.

Same basic lesson plan as always this season: knowing that religion is imperial helps us understand why Islam so often gets a raw deal within the world religions paradigm. And, as always, religious literacy requires us to know not just that Islam exists, but that Muslim practices vary among communities and change over time, place, and cultures.

Ilyse gave us some important background on Islamic history, including similarities and differences between Sunni and Shia traditions, including how members of those communities celebrate Ashura, a holiday in the month of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. Her overview really brought home that the world religions paradigm can really screw up our understanding of lived Islam through a gross slushie of anti-Muslim hostility and good old fashioned Orientalism. (For more on Orientalism, check out episodes 203 and 103. Oh, and episode 308.)

 

Guest Experts! (because together we are a genius)

 

Dr. Kristian Petersen is an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies at Old Dominion University. He specializes in two main areas of research: 1) the development of Islam in China, and 2) Muslims in Cinema. He has brought his scholarship to public audiences in The Revealer, Al Jazeera English, New Lines Magazine, Sapelo Square, The Maydan, and The Religious Studies Project. 

Dr. Petersen showed us that Chinese Muslims see no contradiction or tension between being both Muslim and Chinese. Mosques look Chinese because they are in China. And there are Chinese women-only mosques (which MPG did not know!).

 
 
 

Dr. Hussein Rashid is a scholar of Muslims and American popular culture, and founder of Islamicate, L3C, a consultancy focusing on religious literacy and cultural competency. He works with a variety of NGOs, foundations, non-profits, and governmental agency for content expertise on religion broadly, with a specialization on Islam. His work includes exploring theology, the interaction between culture and religion, and the role of the arts in conflict mediation.

Dr. Rashid showed us that Muslim Americans bring their cultural, linguistic, ethnic, racialized, gendered selves to their Islam. And in New York City, where many neighborhoods are frankly segregated or at least reflect a dominant ethnic or religio-racial group, you can see this in real life. He cautioned us against attributing all differences between—his examples—Saudi Arabia and Iran to Sunnism and Shiism.

 
 

Little Bit Leave It! (in which we leave you a little bit to remember)

Megan wants you to remember that there is SO MUCH to this tradition that never makes it into public conversations about Islam in popular and news media. AND that even thinking about Islam requires those non-Muslims among us to really question the terms we USE to think about it, and how easy it is to slip into Christian-inflected terms to describe an emphatically NOT christian tradition. 

Ilyse wants you to remember that Islam is plural and global. That’s it. It’s Asian, it’s African, it’s North & South American, it’s European. And beyond that, it’s Chinese, Tajik, Iranian, Sudanese, Canadian, American, Trinidadian, Brazilian, French, Russian, and English. Making Islam one thing is dated. Like 19th C racist, Orientalist, dated. Like world religions paradigm, dated.

 

If You Don’t Know, Now You Know! (in which we get one factoid each)

Ilyse taught us that Mary is in the Qur’an more than she’s in the Bible, AND that if you drew a circle around South and Southeast Asia, more Muslims would live in that circle than beyond it.

Megan pointed out that while Americans often assume most Muslims live in the “Middle East,”
a) Middle from where? Surprise, your maps are racist again and
B) Indonesia has the highest Muslim population of any country in the world. Indonesia is NOT in the middle east, no matter how porous that designation gets, AND while Indonesia’s government has a complex relationship to and with Islam, especially in the wake of Dutch colonization, Indonesia does NOT have a quote/unquote Islamic government. 

 

Homework! (because there’s always more to learn)

Ilyse says read and listen to guest expert Dr. Kristian Petersen!

Ilyse also thinks you should check out these four texts on the basics of Islam:

She also keeps a running list of good, accessible books. Most of these are available in Vermont’s public libraries—so hopefully they are accessible in your neck of the woods, too.

Megan says read and watch guest expert Dr. Hussein Rashid!

 
 

Megan also thinks you should check out

Nerds of the Week! (because we love you for loving us)

Thanks for listening, rating and reviewing. This week’s nerd royalty are SISWP26, AlaskaRunning, and BDL’99!!

 

See you next time for “You Still Don’t Know about Islam, Part 2”!

Hey Lady Parts, play us out.