Peeking Behind The Veil.

In the midst of trying to organize a slew of meetings that have suddenly cropped up over the last few days, I got a call from a friend who is doing some study on hijab and the role of the veil in various Muslim countries. I learned, for instance that the veil is not actually prescribed in the Quran and that it was instituted originally by Arabic upper classes in order to demonstrate a separateness from the masses, much in the way wealthy women were cloistered because it was deemed a sign of success that the woman of the house need not go out for anything at all. Every want and need could be brought to her.

As the practice drifted into the lower classes, what the veil symbolized became more and more oppressive. The interesting thing about this is that no scholarly study of hijab has been done in the countries where it is widely practiced.

I believe it's also illustrative of the way in which basic tenets have over time become corrupted by zealots and demagogues. Hijab is not at all perceived in the same way throughout the Muslim world. Many women in Morocco and Lebanon, if they wear hijab at all, do it often as a fashion statement or to express some political viewpoint. The veil does not carry the same assumptions in these countries that it does in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

I thought about this as I heard the story of Muhammad Al-Harbi, a Saudi high school teacher who has been sentenced to prison and 750 public lashes (50 a week to be humane) for the crime of "mocking religion."

A number of 12th Grade students, along with some teachers from the same school, filed a lawsuit a year-and-a-half ago against Al-Harbi. He was accused of mocking Islam, favoring Jews and Christians, preventing students from performing ablutions. He was also charged with studying witchcraft. At the time, he was a chemistry teacher at Al-Fowailiq High School in the town of Ein Al-Juwa in Al-Qassim.

Mr Al-Harbi seems here to be a victim, at the base, of vindictive student who failed tests. But his story goes higher and deeper at once. Islamic studies teachers, angered by Al-Harbi convinced the students to file suit.

Apparently Al-Harbi’s actions and comments against terrorism upset a number of Islamic studies teachers known for their fundamentalist beliefs. After the Al-Hamra blast in Riyadh, Al-Harbi copied an article, “Cavemen Go to Hell” written by Saudi columnist Hammad Al-Salmi in Al-Jazirah newspaper, attacking terrorists and extremists. Al-Harbi posted the article on the school bulletin board but it was ripped off and torn to pieces.

The teachers, as one of the students’ fathers admitted to Al-Harbi, used to visit students in their homes, encouraging them to disobey Al-Harbi and calling him names. One of the Islamic studies teachers stopped Al-Harbi in a morning school assembly from speaking against Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin, identified by the Saudi government as a terrorist and who was on the government’s list of wanted terrorists. The teacher told Al-Harbi that Al-Muqrin was a Muslim and that no matter what he had done, no one should speak against him.

Among Al-Harbi's "crimes" was that he "praised nonbelievers" which is somewhat nebulous as a charge and of a certain quality that attends religious edicts. The charges illustrate the thin veil of ecclesiastical legitimacy that covers radical Wahhabist practices in Saudi Arabia. Above that, this kind of sentence in itself serves as a proxy for the basic tension between backward-looking Islamism and the rest of the world, in which I include those Muslims who do not wish to live under strict Shari'a nor find it at all against God's law to speak against terrorists and, say, have an infidel friend or two.

Much of Islam itself is veiled and the struggle between veiled and unveiled is one that only Islam will be able to resolve. I used to think that the preeminent struggle is between the West and Islamofascism. I have come to question this basic thesis. Not that there isn't this clash happening, but maybe we make a mistake by making it the struggle instead of a struggle that is ancillary to a civil war of sorts inside Islam itself.

To put it more bluntly, what if this isn't all about us? What if the real war is being waged, right now, behind a curtain, a heavy veil originally designed to conseal and protect that has morphed into something oppressive and grotesque?

Comments

[Maggie]

"To put it more bluntly, what if this isn't all about us?"

I agree with your premise, Daniel. But in doing so, I am admitting that we (the west) are in much more danger than originallly thought.

How can they (moderate Islam) win the war when they don't even realize there is a war? Unless, of course, Jordan proves a turning point as is being bandied about the internet since the bombings.

[Vavoom]

I'm sorry, but who's to say moderate Muslims don't know that there is a war? Give me a break...