The Arabization of Islam

[jamaesi]

It's time we realized that passing off Arab culture as authoritatively Islamic is inaccurate, exclusionary, and disrespectful of other Muslims' cultures.

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By Fatemeh Fakhraie, January 9, 2008
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A friend of mine was flipping through my new issue of Muslim Girl a few nights ago. She came upon a photo shoot entitled, "Winterize Your Hijab", which showcases a model wearing different winter knit fabrics as headscarves.

She scoffed at the model: "She doesn't even look Muslim!"

"Why not?" I asked. "Because she's white?"

Akh, here we go again.

Now, the conflation of Islam with Middle Eastern people isn't new. To begin with, all Middle Easterners are not Muslim and all Muslims are not Middle Eastern. In fact, Arabs make up only 18% of the world's Muslim population, according to Reza Aslan, author of No God but God (http://www.altmuslim.com/a?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FNo-god-but-God-Evolution%2Fdp%2F0812971892%2Fref%3Dpd_bbs_1%3Fie% 3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1199916703%26sr%3D8-1). But due to terrorism perpetrated by a few Middle Eastern people, and those oh-so-lovely film clips of angry, bearded brown men burning the US flag, the Middle East and Islam are often mixed up.

Looking within our own community, many Muslims themselves (those of both Middle Eastern origin and non-Middle Easterners) see Arab culture as a proxy for Islamic authenticity. This may stem from the fact that the Holy Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet (peace be upon him)—who was an Arab—in Arabic. Naturally, there is value of learning classical Arabic and reading the Holy Qur'an in its original form. Knowing classical Arabic can also aid in reading the ahadith (a collection of the Prophet's sayings, teachings, and traditions), and reading about Islamic law and history.

Baladas Ghosal of openDemocracy.com (http://www.altmuslim.com/a?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.opendemocracy.com) defines this phenomenon as "[a] process of homogenization and regimentation - the "Arabization" of Islam - puts greater emphasis on rituals and codes of conduct than on substance…" But although getting caught up in rules and regulations often can make one miss the bigger picture, it's important to note that this Arabization is more of a cultural issue than a religious one.

Since the original Muslims were mostly Arab, everything associated with them - their culture, names, and family structures - has been associated with Islam. But this presents a problem since the vast majority of Muslims in our current world are not Arab. Passing off Arab culture as Islam in this regard is inaccurate, exclusionary, and disrespectful of other Muslims' cultures.

Converts to Islam illustrate the issue even further. If a Latina converts to Islam, for example, she may decide (or those at the local mosque may urge her) to take a "Muslim" name, like Fatima or Khadija (which are also Arab names). But why can't Lucinda be a Muslim name? What makes a name "Muslim"?

I know of many non-Arab converts who have taken Arab names upon their conversion. But why? What's wrong with the names their parents gave them? There isn't anything in the Holy Qur'an that mandates Muslims to have Arab names. Changing your name from Carmelita to Khadija isn't going to get you into Paradise any quicker. Changing one's name doesn't change one's ethnicity or personality. But having an Arab name makes one seem more "Muslim," because of the way Arab culture is seen as synonymous with Islam.

Another excellent example is clothing, which mostly affects Muslim women. The niqab (the face-veil) was rarely seen outside of the Arabian Gulf until recently. Most Muslims see the niqab as a byproduct of Arab culture. It is only recently that the niqab has been interpreted as religiously authentic instead of a cultural expression. A minority of women in Canada, the U.S., and Europe now wear niqab because they believe it is religiously mandated.

But sometimes brothers get in on the cultural dress-up, too. For example, Morgan Spurlock's TV show, 30 Days (http://www.altmuslim.com/a?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fxnetworks.com%2Fshows%2For iginals%2F30days%2Findex_2.php), featured a white West Virginian man living as a Muslim for 30 days. They showed him often in a kufi and "salwar kameez" which is like a long tunic over pants. As with the niqab, this isn't "Muslim" clothing, it's a South Asian cultural dress. But since Pakistan is sometimes erroneously considered part of the Middle East, it's considered authentically Muslim. This seems especially silly considering the fact that the majority of the Muslim men in the TV special were wearing "Western-style" clothes: jeans and T-shirts or button-up shirts.

What is troublesome about all this is that most Muslims who are non-Arabs complain that they're not seen as Muslims because they're not Arab (or ethnically Middle Eastern, in some cases). But when non-Arab Muslims take Arab names or wear Arab clothes under the guise of "Islamic authenticity," we're all reinforcing the idea that we're not really Muslims unless we have some link to Arab culture.

The internal projection of Arab culture upon Islam has spread outside the Muslim community as well. If you've ever watched a TV special on Islam, there's always 'oud (an instrument similar to the guitar or lute) or ney (similar to a flute) music playing, to make it sound "mystical" and Arab, and thus authentic. And there's always a gratuitous shot of the desert in there, just to make sure we think that Islam derives from the tribal culture of the Arabian peninsula's deserts instead of from Allah (swt).

The real danger is that Islam is getting buried under all this cultural expression. It is possible to be Muslim without being Middle Eastern, without having a name like Mohammed, and without wearing dishdashas (the long robe worn by most men in the Arabian Gulf states) or niqabs. We should reconsider why Arab-ness is, all of a sudden, next to godliness.

Fatemeh Fakhraie runs the website Muslimah Media Watch (http://www.altmuslim.com/a?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fmuslimahmediawatch.blogspot.com ) and is a regular contributor for Racialicious (http://www.altmuslim.com/a?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.racialicious.com).
Source (http://www.altmuslim.com/a/a/a/2648/)


I'm so glad to see this issue being brought up more and more.

I'm Muslim, I'm not Arab. It's extremely bothersome to me when I'm expected to follow Arab culture to be considered a "real Muslim." Even though I'm Middle Eastern, I'm not Arab, and that point as been rubbed in my face before as "proof" of me being an inferior Muslim.

It's even more upsetting when you look at all the Qur'anic verses and hadeeth that are clearly anti-racist and hold no ethnicity over another.

[Adventus]

I was aware of this and I think many of the concerns do revolve around Arab Muslims and not the other 82%. The problem is (if I may) is that Arab culture is being passed on as part of what it is to be Islamic. One example is Spain. People in that region have a beautiful culture and they don't even walk, talk, and quack like Spaniards anymore.

Thanks for sharing Maesi.

[Ayodhya]

I've met quite a few Pakistani "gangstas" who would like to think their Arab or Middle Eastern.

Think again Paki! You're South Asian! You have Hindu roots and your country houses the Indus Valley Civilization - the cradle of Hinduism and the earliest Indian settlement. Get over it!

It's funny that Pakistani's consider themselves a Muslim country when all the famous Islamic forts, dargahs, palaces, mosques, and tombs are in India. Go figure.

[Adventus]

I've met quite a few Pakistani "gangstas" who would like to think their Arab or Middle Eastern.

Think again Paki! You're South Asian! You have Hindu roots and your country houses the Indus Valley Civilization - the cradle of Hinduism and the earliest Indian settlement. Get over it!

It's funny that Pakistani's consider themselves a Muslim country when all the famous Islamic forts, dargahs, palaces, mosques, and tombs are in India. Go figure.
Now that you remind me, I asked a Indian looking gentleman (and he sounded like one too) if he was Indian (I was curious) and he flipped out on me. He said he doesn't affiliated with them and that he was Pakistani. I didn't know they loved each other that much...:shifty:

[Broken Winged Birdy]

Maesi, I do not agree with the Arabization of Islam, and I am somewhat bothered by event he minor Persianization of Bahá'í, but in Islam it is inevitable. Sunnah is so important that culture is bound to be transfered. In trying to be like Prophet Muhammad, people are going to think they have to abandon their own culture, which though not true, is inescapable. And, in history, the Arabization has served as a unifying force, and still does in countries with Muslim minorities. So I really don't see how anything can be done about it.

[Krashlocke]

I always thought it was interesting that not long after the prophet's (PBUH) death and the establishment of the greater Muslim empire there were four distinct classes: Arab Muslims, non-Arab Muslims, "people of the book", and slaves - in that order. Discrimination of non-Arab Muslims is almost as old as Islam itself and it's no surprise that it is perpetuated even today. I'm always continually fascinated to learn what aspects of Arab culture are absorbed by the greater Islamic culture. This is compounded by the hundreds of thousands of false Hadith that were written hundreds of years after the Qur'an in support of their more contemporary (and Arab) culture. Further complicating this in the value Islam places on the Hadith and the translation of virtually every aspect of Mohammed's (PBUH) life as being holy - including his Arabic cultural heritage - for better and worse.

[Broken Winged Birdy]

Well, you do have the Persian Muslims, and among the Shi'ihs, though Arabs had a certain prestige, there was no fear to express their own unique culture. Problem was, despite all this, their culture pretty much dissapeared, as the Shi'ih was only ever a partial group, and Arab culture was imported via the Sunnis (As most Arabs are Sunni, and most Sunnis in Persia are Arab, whereas among ethnic Persians Shi'ih far outranks.)

[Ayodhya]

Now that you remind me, I asked a Indian looking gentleman (and he sounded like one too) if he was Indian (I was curious) and he flipped out on me. He said he doesn't affiliated with them and that he was Pakistani. I didn't know they loved each other that much...:shifty:

We belong to the same genetic stock. The vast majority of Indian and Pakistani Muslims are not of Afghani, Mongol, Arabic, or Turkish ancestry. The vast majority are converted Muslims, who during the invasions (during the Middle Ages) crossed over from Hinduism to Islam.

[Adventus]

Now that you remind me, I asked a Indian looking gentleman (and he sounded like one too) if he was Indian (I was curious) and he flipped out on me. He said he doesn't affiliated with them and that he was Pakistani. I didn't know they loved each other that much...:shifty:

We belong to the same genetic stock. The vast majority of Indian and Pakistani Muslims are not of Afghani, Mongol, Arabic, or Turkish ancestry. The vast majority are converted Muslims, who during the invasions (during the Middle Ages) crossed over from Hinduism to Islam.
What I found interesting was that the vast majority of quarreling is between Hindus and Muslims. I'm just not used to hearing Hindus fight...

[jamaesi]

I've met quite a few Pakistani "gangstas" who would like to think their Arab or Middle Eastern.

Think again Paki! You're South Asian! You have Hindu roots and your country houses the Indus Valley Civilization - the cradle of Hinduism and the earliest Indian settlement. Get over it!

It's funny that Pakistani's consider themselves a Muslim country when all the famous Islamic forts, dargahs, palaces, mosques, and tombs are in India. Go figure.

...

We belong to the same genetic stock. The vast majority of Indian and Pakistani Muslims are not of Afghani, Mongol, Arabic, or Turkish ancestry. The vast majority are converted Muslims, who during the invasions (during the Middle Ages) crossed over from Hinduism to Islam.

Punjab, whoo!

Don't you have a cow to worship or something? At least we saw the light and converted. :p ;)

Maesi, I do not agree with the Arabization of Islam, and I am somewhat bothered by event he minor Persianization of Bahá'í, but in Islam it is inevitable. Sunnah is so important that culture is bound to be transfered. In trying to be like Prophet Muhammad, people are going to think they have to abandon their own culture, which though not true, is inescapable. And, in history, the Arabization has served as a unifying force, and still does in countries with Muslim minorities. So I really don't see how anything can be done about it.

Sunnah is important- not that really means its followed. If it was women and men would pray side by side in the masajid, men would cover their heads, and women would be teaching Islam, none of the women in Eqgpt would have had their genitals mutilated, women in Saudi would have the choice to go out wearing an abaya... so on and so forth. Arab culture, especially modern Arab culture, is necessarily Islamic culture. It's a great shame.

Are you referring to Panarabism?

I know, too many times, that Arabisation of the Islamic communities happens here in America because the majority of Muslims here are first-generation... but then you have us in the second or third generations who are rejecting the cultures and focusing on Islam and Islamic teachings/culture. :D I am forever grateful I live somewhere where I am truly free to make the choice to be a Muslim and practice Islam. A lot of Muslims I know who have lived in a "Muslim country" tell me they never really felt they were Muslims until they left, before they were just going through the motions as expected.

[jamaesi]

I always thought it was interesting that not long after the prophet's (PBUH) death and the establishment of the greater Muslim empire there were four distinct classes: Arab Muslims, non-Arab Muslims, "people of the book", and slaves - in that order. Discrimination of non-Arab Muslims is almost as old as Islam itself and it's no surprise that it is perpetuated even today. I'm always continually fascinated to learn what aspects of Arab culture are absorbed by the greater Islamic culture. This is compounded by the hundreds of thousands of false Hadith that were written hundreds of years after the Qur'an in support of their more contemporary (and Arab) culture. Further complicating this in the value Islam places on the Hadith and the translation of virtually every aspect of Mohammed's (PBUH) life as being holy - including his Arabic cultural heritage - for better and worse.

Yes, yes, yes! Choodles, darling!


And the false hadeeths, bane of my existence. It's so heartbreaking to know how after Muhammad, peace be upon him, died, everyone started power-grabbing, then and years and years later.

I don't know how anyone could look at the final speech of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and think that there was supposed to be this classism and racism. (With the issue of slavery, it was allowed, but so much better to free your slaves. It was even considered an act of charity and a forgiveness of sins. Even when a man married his slave, as was allowed, she was no longer a slave but a free wife as the rights of slaves and wives differed.)


"All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black, nor a black has any superiority over a white - except by piety and good action. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood. Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim, which belongs to a fellow Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly. Do not therefore, do injustice to yourselves. Remember one day you will appear before Allah and answer for your deeds. So beware, do not stray from the path of righteousness after I am gone."
-Farewell Address of Muhammad, peace be upon him


Islam stressed the equality of everyone. There's a story about a man who converted to Islam, he was of a higher economic class. He had been struck across the face by a man of a lower class. The man went to Muhammad, peace be upon him, and asked him how he could get his revenge on this man, this lowly filth!, who hit him. Muhammad stressed to him that forgiveness was the best way, but the man insisted on getting even. Muhammad finally told him that he could strike the man across the face as well, but nothing more. The man was outraged, before he could have destroyed the man but now he was equal to him.

[Adventus]

Maesi, correct me if I'm wrong but I thought most schools of thought in the Islamic world held the Hadith in high regard? Are there parts of it that some don't follow?

[Ayodhya]

What I found interesting was that the vast majority of quarreling is between Hindus and Muslims. I'm just not used to hearing Hindus fight...

We don't, and as much as this isn't PC, it's the reason for the problem in places such as Kashmir or around India in general. Hindus don't know when to stand up for themselves.

There is a reason we were ruled by Muslims for so long. The vast majority of Hindus are not martial people's.

[Adventus]

What I found interesting was that the vast majority of quarreling is between Hindus and Muslims. I'm just not used to hearing Hindus fight...

We don't, and as much as this isn't PC, it's the reason for the problem in places such as Kashmir or around India in general. Hindus don't know when to stand up for themselves.

There is a reason we were ruled by Muslims for so long. The vast majority of Hindus are not martial people's.
Well, it's not just Hindus dying, but yeah it's mostly Hindus.

[Ayodhya]

Well, it's not just Hindus dying, but yeah it's mostly Hindus.

Unfortunately, that seems to be the case.

[Krashlocke]

Slavery across the Middle East and Africa throughout history tended to be a much different animal from the chattel slavery we typically think of in the west. In the west, one man owned another as a form of transmittable property in addition to their offspring and freedom was the exception, never the rule. In the cultures of the Middle East and Africa (though variations exist) slaves were taken in warfare, kept for a period of time - during which they usually assimilated with whatever tribe that took them - and inevitably freed. In the case of the Ottomans, the slaves actually formed the bulk of the government, military, and ultimately the Sultan himself was a slave at several points.

That's not to say that slavery after the wide spread of Islam was better. While we typically associate western slavery with the harsh lifestyles of the plantation, many individual slave owners treated their slaves with high regard, if nothing else, as one would an expensive peice of farming equipment with all of its' requisite maintenance. Likewise, while Islam's better humanitarian treatment of Muslims raised the standard level of treatment of other Muslims and made it illegal to enslave another Muslim, it was considered acceptable to still take slaves from the warfare with non-Muslims. This ultimately led to Muslims raids across Europe and Asia waging small "holy wars" in order to continue feeding the demand for cheap labor that whose traditional source was cut off by Islam.

[Krashlocke]

Maesi, correct me if I'm wrong but I thought most schools of thought in the Islamic world held the Hadith in high regard? Are there parts of it that some don't follow?

This is correct to the extent that the Hadith are collected stories (individually and collectively referred to as Hadith) of the Prophet (PBUH) and how he lived and are often taken as invaluable parables on how to live a holy life as he did. The problem is that most are taken from oral accounts and hearsay - many amount to nothing more than legend. Throughout history a cottage industry has developed around creating false Hadith in order to support other aims - often political in nature. Since there was little methods to verify the accuracy of these stories, many were accepted at face value, especially if they in some way related to a story in the Qur'an or another Hadith that was highly regarded and well-known.

Over the course of time there have been hundreds of thousands of Hadith found, created, and passed down. The serious study of their authenticity is a fairly recent thing and is incredibly difficult. Likewise, the validity of certain cornerstone Hadith is yet another dividing line between the Shi'a and many of the different schools of the Sunna.

To give you an idea of how big of a problem false Hadith are, only about seven to eight thousand (again, out of hundreds of thousands) are generally regarded as being completely authentic by most Muslims though many of the false ones are still passed around orally.

[Adventus]

Maesi, correct me if I'm wrong but I thought most schools of thought in the Islamic world held the Hadith in high regard? Are there parts of it that some don't follow?

This is correct to the extent that the Hadith are collected stories (individually and collectively referred to as Hadith) of the Prophet (PBUH) and how he lived and are often taken as invaluable parables on how to live a holy life as he did. The problem is that most are taken from oral accounts and hearsay - many amount to nothing more than legend. Throughout history a cottage industry has developed around creating false Hadith in order to support other aims - often political in nature. Since there was little methods to verify the accuracy of these stories, many were accepted at face value, especially if they in some way related to a story in the Qur'an or another Hadith that was highly regarded and well-known.

Over the course of time there have been hundreds of thousands of Hadith found, created, and passed down. The serious study of their authenticity is a fairly recent thing and is incredibly difficult. Likewise, the validity of certain cornerstone Hadith is yet another dividing line between the Shi'a and many of the different schools of the Sunna.

To give you an idea of how big of a problem false Hadith are, only about seven to eight thousand (again, out of hundreds of thousands) are generally regarded as being completely authentic by most Muslims though many of the false ones are still passed around orally.
Thanks...:)

I’m all too familiar with this. It’s very similar to what happen in early Christianity. The difference being that Christianity always had a practical way of resolving such dilemmas. It was messy for sure, but the system was in place since the first century.

What I don’t understand is how is the Hadith any different then the Quran? Wasn’t it also oral at one point? Nothing starts off on paper. Or does Islam believe it fell from the sky?

[Broken Winged Birdy]

The Qur'an was never oral tradition. The Prophet recited it and it was put to the page by trained memorizers at near the same time. Before His death it was codified. It came directly from God, and Muhammad recited it, it was revelation and is synonymous with Muhammad, the Word of God.

The Hadith are traditions about Muhammad, He did not write them. Thought they may, or may not contain the Word of God, they are still the work of men.

[Adventus]

The Qur'an was never oral tradition. The Prophet recited it and it was put to the page by trained memorizers at near the same time. Before His death it was codified. It came directly from God, and Muhammad recited it, it was revelation and is synonymous with Muhammad, the Word of God.

The Hadith are traditions about Muhammad, He did not write them. Thought they may, or may not contain the Word of God, they are still the work of men.
So Muhammad himself didn't write a word of the Qur'an? He recited/passed it on to others? Isn't that oral tradition? Or is just a timing factor? That because not much time passed, it can't be considered tradition?

[Broken Winged Birdy]

It was written by others, but within days and with His approval. It never passed from any mouth but His and that of the Angel Gabriel. So it was oral tradition I suppose. Once a year Angel Gabriel would tell the Prophet something God had told Him, He would tell, Muhammad, Muhammad would tell the People, some amanuensis' would write it, and viola.

But no, Muhammad did not write any of the Qur'an by his own hand. There is however, only one version of the Qur'an, and I have heard that original copies still exist in Mecca, I doubt it though.

[Adventus]

It was written by others, but within days and with His approval. It never passed from any mouth but His and that of the Angel Gabriel. So it was oral tradition I suppose. Once a year Angel Gabriel would tell the Prophet something God had told Him, He would tell, Muhammad, Muhammad would tell the People, some amanuensis' would write it, and viola.

But no, Muhammad did not write any of the Qur'an by his own hand. There is however, only one version of the Qur'an, and I have heard that original copies still exist in Mecca, I doubt it though.
Cool beans...thanks.

[Slatka]

I love this author. I've been saying the same thing my entire life, and my mother before me, and my grandmother before her, and so on. :)

[Broken Winged Birdy]

So Mila, now I knwo why you dislike Arabic so much :P

I saw an awesome documentary on this topic about Indonesia. Is it much of a problem in B&H?

[Slatka]

It's not, Ruhi - but it is becoming one. We have a small but very vocal minority of Wahabi Muslims, Muslims who follow Saudi Arabia's official interpretation of Islam. They have been the cause of riots and all sorts of horrible situations and have been banned from many mosques.

Beyond that, we have a significant number - though no more than 6 per cent of the population - who follow a very Arabian style of Islam but genuinely. They are good people who wear the veil or cover their faces, who won't shake the hands of women or will only marry Muslims. Their beliefs are on the fringe of Islamic practice here, but they themselves are not. I've no problem at all with them in truth.

[Slatka]

This is an excellent representation of that less than 6 per cent I was talking about, Ruhi. It's an Italian documentary with lots of footage of the so-called wannabe Arabs in the city:

http://i1.tinypic.com/6ov302t.jpg

YouTube - un giorno a Sarajevo (http://youtube.com/watch?v=F3zA8wvNUbA)