Throughout the course the cultural approach has been highly emphasized and is highly prevalent in each week of material. The material is very diverse, spanning different time periods, different civilizations and societies, and different cultural means. It compares, contrasts, and intertwines music to art to architecture to poetry to literature to religion and everything in between. I think my blog does a good job at representing many different aspects of Muslim culture, and I think it is important that outsiders do not think of the word “Muslim” and have the same stereotypical single image in their head. Beyond that, I think it is important to think critically about different materials in order to see why they are so important as a representation of Muslim culture. Whether that means visualizing a text, seeing the irony in something, understanding a debate, or simply appreciating something for its beauty, dialogue is important and it can astronomically change the way someone views topic.
My blog posts, although of different media, have a unifying idea of how I approached them. I wanted to have fun in the sense that I wanted to let my creativity take over. I also enjoyed seeing the critical sides to the religion because responding well to criticism only strengthens the mission of the religion, person, or thing. Some of my blog posts emulate what I read, others criticize it or play with the criticisms within it, and still others do both. They definitely all answer to themes in the course and I want to display my creative reaction to the reader in addition to showing the importance of the actual source material.
My Sindhi Maulud was approached as an attempt to emulate the Maulud. Poetry is so ubiquitous in the Muslim world as it is, I would argue, the most respected form of art. Poets are considered the ultimate artists and even entertainers. For me this was a little difficult to wrap my head around at first because while I love and appreciate poetry, I felt like other art forms could be much stronger and louder and did not understand why poetry was so sacred. Music is so beautiful, and visual arts are so colorful and emotive. Centuries ago, I realized, poetry was the easiest was to transport a message and ensure it reached the widest audience. Additionally, writing is the most sacred form of art because God revealed the truth to the world in words, which are transcribed into writing. I also realized that Arabic is an absolutely beautiful looking script, much more so than English. Other languages with much Muslim literature such as Urdu and Persian also have their own charm. In conclusion, writing is just the most beautiful, sacred and easily accessible form of art, and this is emphasized all throughout the course, as every language and culture has its own beautiful poetry and prose. Therefore my attempt to write a Sindhi Maulud was a very humble one, knowing that it is almost impossible for anyone to match up with the great poets of the past. The most I could do was imitate style and incorporate appropriate themes.
My Complaint and Answer entry made a similar attempt. Although in this daring attempt to imitate Iqbal I was trying to incorporate more of myself into the piece rather than do a mere imitation. After all, the answer had already been done! I wanted to play around with it and be a bit more bold and brash. It was a slightly more aggressive response. Not only was the original a beautiful piece of poetry, but it was also drastically new territory and borderline questionable as it can be interpreted as an affront to God (The Answer portion I think saved it from further disapproval). The world “muslim” literally means “one who submits.” I think there is definitely less room in Muslim culture to question the religion because of stricter guidelines and expectations of behavior. In some parts of the world it is illegal to even speak ill of the Qu’ran. For this reason I think Iqbal’s poem is extremely important and texts like this are essential for the religion to thrive. To ask questions and think critically about the religion prompts deeper thought about it. Rather than follow mindlessly a person can be engaged actively in what they believe and in this way not only confront the criticisms, but point out all the positive aspects, thus confirming and strengthening their belief. Like writing a good persuasive essay, it is more effective to recognize the opposing argument and shut it down in a rational process, thus legitimizing your own argument.
Something I saw a lot in the course, while not exactly a theme, though in my opinion just as important as one, is the different interpretations of things. This is to be expected with such a large geographical and cultural expanse of Islam, but even within a culture it is interesting to see how variations in cultural and religious things exist, and how they evolve over time. I wanted to show this on the blog. I chose to do the Ta’ziyeh entry in such a way because the most absurd thing that caught my attention when learning about it was the fact that Shimr was often played as a complete fool. This was contrary to the typical Ta’ziyeh acting because the whole point of the “play” was that it was an enactment and therefore made as real as possible so the audience could feel like they were there on the field with Hussein. So I decided I wanted to make a visual statement of how ridiculous this was by making my own colorful visual with my primitive painting skills. Not only was this a funny little commentary but I think it can also start conversation of the different instances throughout Islam and throughout the course where we see different interpretation. The religion itself is interpreted in many different ways. Not only are there Sunni and Shia Islam, but there is also Sufism, other smaller denominations, and of course extreme fundamentalism. There is also the Islam of Senegal, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, India, and so on. It would even be more accurate to list them by tribe rather than by country, which is of arbitrary imperial origin. If two people can look at the same sacred text and take away completely different messages, then there is definitely endless possibilities of interpretation in Islam, and I think my blog post barely even begin to touch the surface.
In my Beggar’s Strike entry, I similarly wanted to make a point about different interpretations by comically pointing out how people do not always appreciate the things they should. The city proves to be quite selfish, as they only give out of self-interest. The decree from the vice president is basically a showering of gifts to plead for the beggars to return to the city. On a larger scale it is no secret the opinion that most people have about the homeless. Even for those who do not participate in Zakat, their attitudes are often selfish because they feel beggar’s are lazy and do not deserve help. With a different point of view they might see the unfortunately difficult situation that put someone into poverty in the first place. Seeing as it is one of the five Pillars of Islam, I thought it was an extremely important message not just for Muslims but for everyone, and might inspire people to think twice when they are quick to judge. Maybe they can imagine an upside-down world where they need the homeless in order to survive.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist entry was a more serious look at the topic. Although I am naturally biased to view any form of fundamentalism as negative or extreme, this book opened my eyes to new possibilities and started to break down that bias. While I agree that Changez’s initial reaction to the 9/11 attacks was quite disturbing, as I grew with him I felt like I could empathize with him, although I could not completely understand him. I see how just because of slight changes in behavior, such as wearing a beard, he was unfairly labeled as a “fundamentalist” by the people who hurled insults at him for being “Arab” and a “terrorist.” I think to some degree he is a fundamentalist, but again it is all about interpretation. My collage asks the viewer to ask themselves how they interpret things by questioning the labels they would normally mindlessly apply to things, the biggest one of all being “fundamentalism.”
Moving on, I was absolutely fascinated when I learned of the history of Iran. Many countries Westernize as they develop and Iran was no exception, except when it did a complete 180 degree turn and became completely anti-Westernization. I wanted to immortalize the image of young Marji innocently in her Veil, denim jacket and Michael Jackson pin, smiling. I wanted the blog viewer to see it for what it was, a young girl who did nothing wrong. Persepolis is a very unique artistic text, but he themes of Western fear, modesty, extremism, and suffering for one’s beliefs are ever present in other texts and are constant hot topics of debate, especially in an ever modernizing world where people are questioning what kind of modesty is really necessary and how important is anti-Westernization.
Ultimately I think the issues presented in the class through the immensely thorough cultural approach are extremely complex and have no definitive solutions in the near future, but I hope that my blog can continue the dialogue. If people find problems or disapprove with certain aspects of my entries, all the better. It means that I have accomplished part of my goal. As the viewer goes through the blog, they can ask what aspects of Islam are in each post, are they controversial, is a point made, can a counterpoint be made, and what are the positive or educational lessons in them? I personally absolutely loved learning about Islam and have a deeper respect for it as a leading world religion and as a religion of peace, but I think the best thing I can give back is a platform for further discourse, so have at it!