A feast for the eyes, ears, nose, throat…
Sitt Marvel
Why can’t Spiderman convert to Islam?
by Leon Moosavi, Al Jazeera, Nov. 27, 2013
[Editor’s Note: There are a number of hyperlinks in the original Al Jazeera article which are not reproduced here by a tired editor.]
There’s a strong current of Islamophobia gushing through our era. In various places, Muslims are still perceived as causing problems with their alleged insistence on being different. From Canada, to the UK, to Burma, and beyond, there are intense debates today that construct Muslims as a troublesome “race” who need to be contained. So when I heard about a new superhero that is going to eradicate this globalised Islamophobia, I was excited.
Commentators have celebrated Marvel’s new Muslim superhero, Kamala Khan (aka Ms Marvel), as a refreshing example of a strong Muslim woman who will normalise Muslim identity. Some even went as far as saying that Khan is “a much needed counter to Islamophobia in show business” and that “Marvel’s work is a watershed moment in breaking down fear and ignorance.” I wish these commentators were right, but sadly, I think they are overlooking some finer points of Kamala’s character that may suggest she is part of the problem rather than the solution.
A Muslim shapeshifter
From the limited information we have about Kamala, we know that she is a 16-year-old “shapeshifter”, who comes from a conservative and restrictive family. She apparently struggles with an identity crisis between her Muslim and American identities. This loose characterisation does not sound like a refreshing portrayal of a Muslim character to me, but in fact, is consistent with typical outdated stereotypes of Muslims. In particular, the idea that Muslim women are trapped by family, tradition and Muslim men is an old orientalist trope that is still projected onto Muslim communities today. It is the same logic that has been used to justify the criminalisation of Muslim clothing and the invasion of Muslim countries.
Her ability to “shapeshift” brings to mind the common Islamophobic accusation that Muslims routinely practice taqqiya where they deliberately conceal their true beliefs for the sake of sinister plots.
In this respect, it may not be a coincidence that Kamala rhymes with Malala, as both of their stories may give the impression that Muslim women need saving from Muslim men. The question that has been asked about Malala, may fairly be asked about Kamala as well: Is she really an empowered Muslim woman or is she an appropriated tool whose narrative coalesces with the portrayal of Muslim men’s ruthless domination needing to be curbed? It will be interesting to see what role Kamala’s white male friend “Bruno” plays in respect to this. It would be tragic if he is the one who Kamala feels safe to confide in, or who helps liberate her, or who gains an intimate relationship with her, because all of these correspond with racist imaginings of how the hierarchical relationship between white men and brown women should be. Continue reading Sitt Marvel
Tabsir Redux: When the Fat Lady Sings
For those fortunate enough to own a MAC computer there is the digital blessing of ITunes. One of the stations listed under “Eclectic” is “The 1920’s Radio Network” which features jazz and vaudeville songs from the 20s through the 40s. Every once in awhile along comes one of those “Oriental” tunes, usually riding stereotypes into the desert on a sand-blasted camel of Araby. One I recently heard manages to offend both Egyptians and obese women (not to mention any serious poet). This is Egyptian Ella, not to be confused with Ella Fitzgerald, who did not debut until four years after this tune was written by Walter Doyle and popularized by Ted Weems and his orchestra.
Egyptian Ella
by Walter Doyle
Ella was a dancing girl who started getting fat
Every day saw three more pounds on Ella
Until one day she found she’d lost her job because of that
And to make it worse, she’d lost her fella
She took a trip to Egypt to forget
And she made such a hit that she’s there yet … Continue reading Tabsir Redux: When the Fat Lady Sings
The “Science” of Hatred
A mass grave near Zvornik from which more than 500 corpses were exhumed, 2002; photograph by Tarek Samarah
In a recent open access article, The Science of Hatred, in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Tom Bartlet discusses a psychologist attempting to understand the Serbian denial of the massacres of Muslims in Bosnia in the 1990s. The subtitle is: “What makes humans capable of horrific violence? Why do we deny atrocities in the face of overwhelming evidence? A small group of psychologists say they are moving toward answers. Is anyone listening?” The article is more a profile of Sabina Cehajic-Clancy, a Bosnian social psychologist who studies intergroup conflict, than a probing of the title. The focus is more on “how” Serbs could deny such a well documented atrocity rather than the motivations for the mass killing. There really is no “science” in the article, a part from a nod to some role for our evolutionary trajectory. But if you would like to read a human-interest story about an individual working on a very personal matter to better understand the denial of atrocities, it is worth reading.
The idea that there can be a “science” of hatred sounds promising, but it tends to fall apart less over the debate about what science is than what we mean by the emotionally charged notion of “hatred.” Several religions teach the God is love, but then also note that there are lots of things that God hates. Love and hate go together, not so much as polar opposites but as part of a continuum of how we perceive the world around us as comforting and dangerous at the same time. There is one kind of hate or love that is directed to an individual because of the familiarity of interaction. Falling into love, to quote the romantic rubric, suggests that we can fall into hate as well. But these are metaphors that swirl around fuzzy concepts. Continue reading The “Science” of Hatred
Pass the Pistacios
In the current issue of ARAMCO World, which is available free online, there is an interesting article on how Iranian pistacios came to California. Click here for the full article. I attach a teaser below…
In 1957, a small experimental orchard in Chico, California distributed to commercial nut-growers a promising new variety of pistachio tree from Iran, called Kerman.
The United States Department of Agriculture wanted to see how these Kerman trees might perform in the richly fertile Central Valley of California.
By 2013, the Kerman had created a billion-dollar agricultural industry, and what was once a delicacy was a long way toward becoming a common household snack. University of California pistachio specialist Louise Ferguson calls the California Kerman pistachio tree “the single most successful plant introduction of the 20th century.â€
Wellcome Library Arabic Manuscripts Online
عجايب المخلوقات وغرايب المخلوقات الموجودات
The Arabic manuscripts collection of the Wellcome Library (London) comprises around 1000 manuscript books and fragments relating to the history of medicine. For the first time this website enables a substantial proportion of this collection to be consulted online via high-quality digital images of entire manuscripts and associated rich metadata.
This has been made possible by a pioneering partnership between the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Wellcome Library, and King’s College London, with funding from the JISC Islamic studies programme.
These manuscripts are part of the Wellcome Library’s Asian Collection, which comprises some 12,000 manuscripts and 4,000 printed books in 43 different languages. The Islamic holdings include Arabic and Persian manuscripts and printed books, and a small collection of Ottoman manuscripts and Turkish books. The core of these collections relates to the great heritage of classical medicine, preserved, enlarged and commentated on throughout the Islamic world, stretching from Southern Spain to South and South-east Asia.
Charlie’s Speech
In Charlie Chaplin’s marvelous satirical response to Hitler in The Great Dictator there is a profound speech, available with Arabic subtitles and quite relevant to the fighting currently going on in the Middle East and everywhere. And there are dictators who are not called dictators… Here is a copy of the speech.
Picturing Syria
The photographer Narcisso Contreras has an extraordinary gallery of photographs taken in Syria and Egypt on his website.
His biography, as taken from his website, is as follows:
Narciso Contreras is a photographer born in Mexico City, fond of exploring each encounter to precisely capture its most poignant moments. His work focuses in feature stories, reportage and documentary based on religious communities, human nature and conflicts, the later being his main focus for the past years. Contreras has studied Philosophy and Photography, conducting research for many years and dedicating himself to photography professionally for three. Contreras is currently covering the ongoing civil war in Syria. His work has been published in newspapers and magazines all over the world, among others in TIME, the Guardian, the Times, the New York Times, der Spiegel, National Geographic, the Telegraph, the Washington Post, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, L’ Espresso among others.