Islamic Leftism
inv.nadeko.net
cross‐posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5873308 > With the exceptions of alcohol (and the occasional locust), nearly everything that is kosher is also halal. It is normal for Muslims to seek kosher cuisine whenever Islamic grocers or restaurants are difficult to access. Quoting Ethan B. Katz’s *The Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France*, page 52: > > >Illustrating the potential for interaction, Muslims looking for halal meat regularly entered kosher butchers’ shops. Given that many Muslims have long considered kosher meat permissible under Islamic law, since the nineteenth century, a number of North African Muslim travelers had sought out kosher butchers when visiting Europe. In war time France, many observant Muslims naturally turned to Jewish slaughter houses for their meat.¹¹⁶ > > Page 66: > > >During the 1930 celebrations of the centenary of the Algerian conquest, one Jewish observer spotted groups of visiting Muslim notables in traditional attire entering the kosher restaurants of the 9th arrondissement, drawn by both the compatibility of Jewish ritual slaughter practices with Muslim rules of halal and the familiar menu.²⁰ > > > >Indeed, the daily experience of the city was changing: Parisians out walking in certain quarters might regularly pass by a restaurant with North African or Balkan cuisine and smell the wafting scent of couscous, merguez, baklava, or other traditional “Oriental” or “Arabic” foods; see Jews or Muslims dressed in “North African” garb going about their daily lives in the city; or hear previously unfamiliar Arabic musical modes and instruments emanating from cafés, restaurants, and concert halls. > > Page 227: > > >Until halal shops became widespread in Marseille in the mid to late 1960s, many newly arrived Muslims went to kosher butcheries here and elsewhere in the city to buy their meat.¹¹³ > > Page 234: > > >Not far from Cronenbourg, the Bagouchas, an Algerian Jewish family, opened the city’s first “Oriental” grocery store, with products from North Africa. “All the Muslims,” remembers Dahan, “went to this épicerie, because they found there someone who spoke Arabic, who dressed like them, who served the great sacks of spices to which they were accustomed in North Africa.” For many years before Strasbourg had halal shops, religious Muslims purchased their meat at kosher butcheries.¹³⁸ > > Page 240: > > >Jews’ and Muslims’ mutual familiarity, common customs and language, and physical proximity gave way to social, economic, cultural, and even religious relations. In many North African cafés, Jews and Muslims played cards and listened to Arabic music together.¹⁶⁰ Mediterranean grocery stores regularly featured mixed Jewish and Muslim clienteles. Many Jews and Muslims lived in the same apartment building.¹⁶¹ A number of Tunisian Muslims who found their way to Belleville took jobs in the quarter working for Jewish‐owned food establishments.¹⁶² > > > >North African Jews in Belleville often had greater resources than their Muslim counter parts and reached out to them. As an organizer for Logique, a Jewish voluntary association helping underprivileged children in Belleville, Patricia Jaïs remembers working with both Jewish and Muslim families in need. She recalls as well a Jewish friend whose father kept his neighborhood North African café open after hours each night to allow Muslims who came with no money to eat for free.¹⁶³ > > > >Community boundaries were at once porous and fixed. With fifteen kosher and twelve halal butcheries in the short stretch between the Ménilmontant and Belleville Metro stops, Jews and Muslims generally purchased ritually slaughtered meat that accorded precisely with their own, rather than each other’s comparable, traditions.¹⁶⁴ > > > >Reviving customs popular in North Africa, Jews and Muslims also exchanged foods around the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. During the fast month itself, Jewish grocers often offered fruits, vegetables, and fresh herbs that Muslims used to prepare their evening meals. On Aïd el‐Fitr, the feast that concludes the holiday, Muslims would bring pastries and grilled mutton to their Jewish neighbors. As in North Africa, these exchanges highlighted a sense of community. > > > >By their festive, occasional nature, though, they underscored the way that many Jewish and Muslim neighbors, while speaking in the street and remaining amicable, stayed at arm’s length.¹⁶⁵ The mixing of Jews and Muslims was accepted here, but it occurred in a precise, controlled context and thus relied on understood boundaries. > > Quoting Aviva A. Orenstein’s [*Once We Were Slaves, Now We are Free: Legal, Administrative, and Social Issues Raised by Passover Celebrations in Prison*](https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2670&context=facpub#page=31): > > >Interestingly, one cause of the increased cost of kosher meals in some prisons is the request by devout Muslims for kosher foods, which satisfy the Muslim requirements of halal.¹⁵⁷ > > :::spoiler [Trivia] > In medieval Europe, some Christian authorities referred to Islamic dietary laws as another justification for classifying Muslims as legally ‘Jewish’. Quoting David M. Freidenreich’s *Jewish Muslims: How Christians Imagined Islam as the Enemy*, pages 135–6: > > >Bernard transformed the structure of canon law, but he did not seek to change the ways in which canonists perceived Muslims. Huguccio, Bernard’s contemporary and an equally influential canonist, did just that: perhaps in an effort to account for the Third Lateran Council’s unprecedented association of Jews and Saracens, he collapsed the legal distinction between these groups. > > > >“Today,” he asserted in the late 1180s, “there does not seem to be any reason for saying that servitude to pagans is different from servitude to Jews, for nearly all contemporary pagans judaize: they are circumcised, they distinguish among foods, and they imitate other Jewish rituals. There ought not be any legal difference between them.”¹¹ > > > >Huguccio acknowledges that the New Testament itself instructs Christian slaves to accept the authority of their pagan masters (1 Peter 2:18). He emphasizes, however, that twelfth‐century “pagans”—that is, Muslims—are different from their predecessors because they adhere to “Jewish rituals” such as male circumcision and abstention from pork. > > > >Just as Christians may not serve Jews, Huguccio contends, so, too, they may not serve “judaizing pagans”—that is, Muslims. Canonists, after all, regarded literal observance of Old Testament law as a defining feature of Judaism, and they would readily brand Christians who practice circumcision or distinguish among foods as judaizers; from this perspective, it follows naturally that Muslims judaize in their adherence to these practices. By extension, Huguccio seems to suggest, Muslims are as likely as Jews to corrupt the beliefs and behaviors of their Christian slaves. > > > >[…] > > > >Huguccio, unlike Bernard, also forbids shared meals with Muslims on the grounds that “nearly all Saracens at the present judaize because they are circumcised and distinguish among foods in accordance with Jewish norms […] The reason for the prohibition [against Jewish food] expressed in *Omnes* applies equally to both groups.” According to Huguccio’s interpretation of *Omnes*, the sixth‐century canon forbidding shared meals with Jews discussed above, exposure to Judaism is dangerous because Christians might be tempted to adopt Old Testament practices. > > > >By this logic, interaction with Muslims is equally fraught since they, too, observe Old Testament norms literally. Huguccio’s argument for avoiding shared meals with Jews and Saracens alike appears in the influential Ordinary Gloss to the *Decretum*, the mid‐thirteenth‐century commentary that regularly accompanied subsequent copies of that collection.¹² > :::
>"What will Arab journalists say after they see Xinjiang themselves?"
The only author I know of is Ali Shariati, and I have trouble finding his work. I linked his essay "Red Shiism vs. Black Shiism" as an example of what I potentially am looking for. Sorry if this is a bit if an odd request, this us my first Lemny post. Anything linked would be helpful.
For context, I'm a USian who became interested in Islamic cultures as a young adult, and from there found something magnetic about the faith of Islam. I have many LGBT friends, and whenever I've reached out to mosques, the answers I get are rather disappointing. The best one I've gotten still invalidates homosexual relationships. I'm cishet, but as I said I have many LGBT friends, and I'm also poly. I have a comrade who is trans and converted to Islam, and I see that many LGBT Muslims exist, but this confounds me, too. Even the most open-minded of them will say something is "what Muslims believe" and then clarifies that it is from a Hadith, not strictly from the Quran. The comrade I know is a "Quranic" Muslim - one who follows the Five Pillars and the teachings of the Quran itself, and I know the Hadith are controversial outside of the majority of Sunni Islam. I want to be a more spiritual person, but the type of Islam I encounter promotes teachings I know in my heart to be wrong. I know, too, that many Christians, Muslims, and Jews have this odd personal combat with God, for lack of a better term - a struggle with the divine, wherein they work out various personal sins/failings or disagreements with the scripture. I know Jews that eat pork, Muslims who drink, Christians who don't pray. I sense there's a spirit to the faiths that is more important than adherence to prescriptions of the text. I am white (part Native American, but this isn't visible in my appearance or culture). No part of my lineage comes from any land associated with Islam. It feels like appropriation for me to want to convert to a faith, but then pick and choose which parts of it I want to believe and follow. I dabble in tarot and the occult. I'm poly. I believe all consensual love is valid and sacred. So, I guess my question is aimed more towards the Muslim comrades here who are LGBT or allies, who balance the secular with the spiritual, who might be able to show me the way: How can I call myself a Muslim without compromising my beliefs? Is there a sect or denomination I can seek guidance from? Am I just wasting my - and your - time?
::: spoiler spoiler It's the seal of Muhammed, used at the end of the letters he sent  :::
youtu.be
cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3548223 >>“Why the US wants to separate Xinjiang from China? Because its location is too crucial for them to destabilize Eurasia. > In this video, I laid out the strategic location of Xinjiang, and how CIA experts planned long ago to destabilize China by playing the "Uyghur card."”
youtu.be
cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3374505 > >How is Life of Muslims in Xinjiang | The Xinjiang they don't want you to see | 新疆真实穆斯林生活是什么样的？| 他们不想让你看到的新疆
youtu.be
cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3057307 >>“This video highlights China's recent efforts to solve Palestinian-Israeli conflicts, and discusses why Arab and Muslim nations trust China over Western countries on being a fair and trustworthy partner. >>Joining me in the discussion are Yin Zhiguang, Professor of International Politics at Fudan University in Shanghai, and Hussein Askary, West Asia Coordinator of the Schiller Institute in Sweden.”
I've seen people supporting Saddam and I guess it could have been just a mistake or something, but it seems like such a shitty decision to make, and he also received support from the US, so I don't really know what to believe there.
 
I was born and raised Catholic (Western Belarusian and Irish parents) and I went through a once-a-week religious class, but never felt especially attached to Christianity. I became an atheist over time and have been going through difficulties currently and I find that I still have a faith deep down. I’m interested in Islam because I read a tiny bit of the Quran as a kid out of curiosity (during the height of Islamophobia in the US, George Bush, early Obama era) and found that it wasn’t “terrifying and inhumane” as Fox News would say on the TV set at my grandparents’ condo. What resources would you point to for a beginner/ on the fence person to learn about Islam? Thank you in advance.
youtu.be
cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2486849 > >Western media & government's pivot from constantly convincing you there are Muslims somewhere that need your help & military intervention, to suddenly providing excuses for the massacre of thousands of innocent Muslims is one of the more spectacular pieces of hypocrisy we've seen in a while. Particularly when you consider they are still today pushing flimsy stories of persecuted Muslims elsewhere, desperate for you to diver your attention away from Isr*el.
www.telesurenglish.net
> According to official data, in February, Tunisian authorities arrested a large number of Ennahdha party leaders, including its president Rached Ghannouchi, his deputy Ali Al-Arayedh, and former Minister of Justice Noureddine Bhiri, on charges including conspiracy against state security. > Ennahdha, with the Shura Council being its highest-ranking body, was **the largest party in the previous parliament** that was dissolved by Tunisian President Kais Saied in July 2021. I didn't know that b.t.w. : In Tunisia, Habib Bourguiba ruled from the independence in 1957 until a coup by Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 1987, who stayed in power until the tunisian "Jasmine" revolution of 2011 which eventually put Beji Caid Essebsi in power in 2014(, after banning the islamist party Ansar al-Sharia in 2013). And since 2019 it's Kais Saied.   There's a lot of anti-islamic propaganda about islam supposedly teaching that women are subhumans, so it may be worth mentioning that : > In the 2014 Tunisian parliamentary election, Ennahda candidate Jamilia Ksiksi became Tunisia's first black female MP. And, also : > Ennahda became the largest party in parliament in the 2019 election(, so until 2021 according to Telesur) > The Tunisian government has detained at least 17 current or former members of the party, including its head, and closed its offices around the nation since December 2022. Tunisian authorities apprehended Ghannouchi and searched his headquarters in April 2023.
www.ispu.org
>In [*American Muslim Poll: Amid Pandemic and Protest*](https://www.ispu.org/?p=34620), the Islamophobia Index was recorded mere months before an election where the incumbent was widely seen as fomenting anti-Muslim sentiment as an electoral strategy, both with rhetoric and administration policies like the Muslim Ban. Most notable among our results is the consistent decline in Islamophobia among Jewish Americans from 22 in 2018 to 18 in 2019 to 16 in 2020. > > >---- ># 2022 >In the [*American Muslim Poll 2022: A Politics and Pandemic Status Report*](https://www.ispu.org/?p=37701), for the fourth year, we measured the Islamophobia Index, a measure of the level of public endorsement of five negative stereotypes associated with Muslims in America. The general public scored 25 (on a scale of 0 to 100), on par with 27 in 2020. American Muslims scored 26 on the Islamophobia Index, higher than Jewish Americans who scored the lowest at 17.
www.workers.org
>The situation stems from a 2009 arrest and a 2011 conviction that claimed four individuals—all of whom are of the Islamic faith—were plotting to use stinger missiles to shoot down military airplanes flying out of an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, New York, and blow up two synagogues in Riverdale. (New York Times, July 27) > >Evidence now suggests that the FBI, along with an informant named Shahed Hussain, was responsible for the whole fiasco. Hussain is a Pakistani businessperson who had been working with the FBI prior to the sting operation. Records show that he was paid a generous salary of $100,000 by the FBI to “seek out Muslim radicals” at local mosques. (The Guardian, Dec. 12, 2011) > >Hussain’s provocative rhetoric and flashy appearance raised suspicion among the Islamic clergy at Masjid al-Ikhlas, the Islamic Learning Center in Newburgh infiltrated by Hussain, where he met the four individuals who became FBI scapegoats. > >Masjid Imam Salahuddin Muhammad was leery of Hussain’s reactionary and forceful demeanor from the time he first stepped foot into the Newburgh community mosque. “This guy said ‘women should not be heard, not be seen.’ I thought that was strange,” Muhammad told The Guardian. Hussain presented himself in a cartoonish manner, reinforcing negative stereotypes, and that raised suspicion among several members of the Mosque.
"The anti-unity campaign of Wahhabis reaches its peak during the Unity Week. One of the best means of replying to such a plot is that the 'ulama' of the Hajj caravans and pilgrims should be the promoters of unity more than anyone else. They should be familiar with the methods of dealing with them and understand their views and opinions so that during confrontations and argumentation's, they could reply to them consciously and intellectually. It is necessary for some Muslims who are following the Sunni school to be properly informed about the opinions of the Sunni imams so as to realize that the Wahhabis also have views difference to them and even regard many of the beliefs of the Ahl as-Sunnah as polytheistic and, worse still, prone to infidelity {kufr}. In reality, **Wahhabism is a political movement under the religious cover of identifying with the Sunnis and it wants to prevent the unity of the Islamic schools of thought {madhahib}. It is trying to kindle the flame of discord among Muslims especially between the two main sects—Sunni and Shi`ah—so as to make the imperialist hegemony permanent over the Muslim nation.** Unfortunately, with the acquisition of the oil-rich land of Arabia and reliance on the enormous God-given wealth, Wahhabism has succeeded in becoming a potent force and has established innumerable offices and organizations throughout the world for the propagation of its dogma. In the Sunni-populated regions of Iran and Pakistan where most of the people are suffering from poverty and deprivation, the Wahhabis are making huge investments, constructing religious schools {madaris}, spending large amounts of money upon their students and others, and attracting people to Wahhabi doctrines. Since most of our Sunni brothers are living on the border regions of Iran, they are more subjected to the influence of the propaganda of the imperialist Wahhabis. As the 'Alawi Shiah and Muhammadi Sunnis have risen up now hand in hand against their enemies and can clearly see the hand of imperialism behind the curtain of Wahhabism, it is necessary for Sunni and Shiah 'ulama' to conduct research about Wahhabism and identify it well so as to make it clear that this group has differences of opinion not only with the Shiah but also with the Ahl as-Sunnah. Although the Wahhabis are always playing the Sunni card and try to portray themselves as the well-wishers and sympathizers of the Sunnis, Sunnis in turn have to know that the issues regarded by Wahhabis as their points of departure with the Shiah are the same issues that are common between the Sunnis and the Shiah. They also have to know that the Shiah school is closer to the Ahl as-Sunnah than Wahhabism is."
I was debating whether to insert this within LGBT+ or Islamic Leftism but I do think ultimately it might fit here better because it covers the specific experience of French indigènes, which makes it more relevant here. I feel like in these sort of online Islamic “progressive” spaces, there’s no genuine discussions happening. These spaces are often almost defensive in nature - like the existence of this community is just to prove to disapproving whites that Islam isn’t this, or isn’t that. This is a result of being in a Western dominated space in general. Gender and sexual minorities is a very important phenomenon that must require a response, yet it is almost ignored or never spoken about because this muslim-homophobia dichotomy is so engrained that people are (rightfully) scared to even talk about it, especially across the White left. I’d of course invite everyone to treat this article critically, and contribute if you have any qualms against their conclusions, although I will admit my opinions have slowly drifted closer to the article as the years went by.
There has been an annoying belief, both in religious circles, and in communist ones, that being a communist makes you an atheist, or that believing in the ideologies of communism is mutually exclusive to being religious. This is simply untrue and a fault of past socialist and communist nations. However, they do not represent the full ideology of communism itself, and self-criticality is a major part of many left-wing movements, where the nuance to accept the good things about communist nations (lifting people out of poverty, free subsidized healthcare, etc.) is accepted along with the denouncement of their flaws (in this case attack on public religion). Edit: This was taken from my reddit account, u/Planet_Explorer. We're looking for new members of r/IslamicSocialism101, so you're welcome to join!
I was reading *Socialism's Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism* by Ramin Mazaheri, and they mentioned something that has become a common sight here too: Islamic finance. Iran is leading in Islamic financing, with Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the UAE and Qatar filling the rest of the Top 5 according to this [report](https://icd-ps.org/uploads/files/ICD%20Refinitiv%20ifdi-report-20221669878247_1582.pdf). For those who don't know, it's basically finance but with Islamic principles as accorded to the Quran and various *Madhhab*s (schools of jurisprudence). Some of it's principles are (quoting [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_banking_and_finance#Principles)), among others: > 1. Paying or charging interest. "All forms of interest are riba and hence prohibited". Islamic rules on transactions (known as Fiqh al-Muamalat) have been created to prevent use of interest. > 2. Investing in businesses involved in activities that are forbidden (haraam). These include things such as selling alcohol or pork, or producing media such as gossip columns or pornography. > 3. Charging extra for late payment. This applies to murâbaḥah or other fixed payment financing transactions, although some authors believe late fees may be charged if they are donated to charity,or if the buyer has "deliberately refused" to make a payment. Has any comrades read much on this? How viable do you think is such a financial system, especially now, with renewed *interest* in de-dollarisation? (see what I did there?) Can it fully live up to it's socialistic principles in a world capitalist system?
Specifically, [they were Libyans who had already been resisting Italian colonialism for a decade.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/356919) Sadly, this also means that the first foreign victims of a Fascist government were probably Muslims too, [many of whom perished in concentration camps.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/370814) (As a preinstitutional movement, on the other hand, Fascism’s first foreign victims were most likely [Croats or Slovenes](https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Fascist_Italy#cite_ref-Cresciani_ClashOfCivilisations_77-0).)
You can block the comments but you cannot silence our voices. It's troubling "mean arab terrorist" had such experiences here. I would ask if this was on Lemmy or Lemmygrad? "I have seen people refer to Chador and Hijab as “wearing trashbags”" This is insanely racist. This should not be tolerated. "the Islamic Republic of Iran is “enslaving women”" We all have liberal tendencies here that we are in the process of purging however this western feminism should have been called out. "I have seen people refer to Islam as “a painkiller” and that communists should “free [Muslims] from irrational immaterial thought” and make accusations that all Muslims engage in FGC" I am unfamiliar with the term 'FGC', however the opiate of the masses critique is based. This is a long standing Marxist stance on religion. This should be allowed here. "I was banned from the Palestine community for “being mean” to an israeli colonizer after I told them to expeditiously get out of Palestine." Blaming the individual is radlib however in the Israeli case I would tell them to join Palestine instead of trying to paint them as the entire country of Israel. "I have had my comments censored and removed when discussing the liberation of Palestine From the River to the Sea and citing the revolutionary leaders from the resistance. The reasoning for censorship repeated the zionist entity language: “advocating terrorism"" Not ok. We are against imperialist powers and projects. "Throughout all of this I see invaders who live in the settler-colonies are defended as “comrades like everyone else”. Even though they are repeating toxic discourse about how such and such liberation movement “shouldn’t alienate the [colonizer] ‘workers’.”" It seems that this latest topic in it's turbulent controversy was the last straw for you and I find it regretful that it has gotten this far considering 90% of what you experienced you shouldn't have. Take care and I wish you the best.
www.workers.org
>The heroic uprising began with what was intended as a nonviolent protest against forcing Sunni Muslim prisoners to take a tuberculosis test involving the ingestion of an alcoholic substance — a violation of their religion. Other aggravating conditions that led to a full-scale rebellion included poor food and medical care; frequent guard violence and guard-instigated violence between incarcerated men, which had led to a number of deaths; overcrowding; and allowing only one phone call to loved ones each year. > >After the uprising five men — Imam Siddique Abdullah Hasan, [Keith Lamar](https://www.workers.org/?p=72412) (aka Bomani Shakur), Nameer Mateen (aka James Were), Jason Robb and George Skatzes — were falsely convicted of murder and sentenced to death for the killing of a guard, Robert Vallandingham, and, in Skatzes’ case, taking a prisoner hostage during the siege. Lamar now has an execution date: Nov. 16, 2023. > >Dozens more were scapegoated for participating in the uprising, framed-up on false charges and given long sentences. Most are still in prison. > >The rebellion, which lasted 11 days, united Black, Brown and white prisoners. Of the five Lucasville defendants on death row, three are Black and two are white.
www.tasnimnews.com
>The Islamic Republic of Iran’s 20 year Vision Plan, as a multi-disciplinary document, has set out provisions on the ways and means on enhancing social justice, legitimate freedoms, protection of humans’ dignity and rights, social and judicial security, health, welfare, food security, social security, equal opportunities, appropriate distribution of income, acceptable sound environment and strengthening the institution of family, with no poverty, corruption and discrimination. Any thoughts? I found it informative and totally contrary to the western-imposed ideas I had in my head of Iran's narrative surrounding women. Tasnim News, it should be mentioned, is fiercely loyal to the Iranian government according to their about page.
The month of fasting will soon begin, and may everyone have great month. > O you who acknowledge, fasting is decreed for you as it was decreed for those before you that perhaps you may be righteous. (2:183)
"To let those who are hypocrites know, that they were told: "Come fight in the cause of God or defend," they said, "If we knew how to fight we would have followed you." That day they were closer to rejection then they were to acknowledgement. They say with their mouths what is not in their hearts, and God knows well what they conceal." (1:167)
Welcome to this new community, vaguely inspired by reddit's r/islamicleft. This is just meant to be a leftist subreddit for muslims or people interested in Islam, or leftist Islam. I'm completely new to this, so if anyone wants to help by offering criticism or wants to volunteer as a mod, please comment or PM me. > Moses said to his people: "Seek help with God, and be patient; for the land is God's. He will inherit it to whom He pleases of His servants; and the victory belongs to the righteous." (7:128)