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From the masjid to the cabinet chamber Probably the most quoted statement of the great Palestinian thinker Edward Said is his description of true intellectuals as those who are willing to ‘speak truth to power’. I thought of these words recently as I sat through an almost three-hour meeting between leaders of various Muslim organisations and government representatives. Ignoring the temptation to mouth platitudes about Said being relevant to almost any situation, one might ask what he had to do with this meeting at the Union Buildings and why I would recall this statement in the presence of three senior government ministers and two deputy ministers. Said became relevant to the meeting – three days before the first anniversary of his death – as I sat in what had been the cabinet room of the apartheid government and listened to one delegate after another trying to impress on government how we Muslims are ‘a peaceful community’ and how we were willing to cooperate with government on issues of national security (which was what the meeting was about). It’s not that I don’t believe in peace or that I don’t think South Africa’s Muslim community should be working with government on certain issues (the latter is a topic for another column). My discomfort was that here we were, in the presence of the ‘power’ that we should be speaking truth to (of course, Said was referring to intellectuals and I’m not necessarily suggesting that any of us was an intellectual), and most of what we were doing was repeating polite statements (and having them repeated back to us). But even that was only part of what annoyed me. What really galled me was that I knew that some of us that were so easily complimenting government about its national security and democratic roles actually supported the very people who the government wanted to clamp down on, that despite such compliments there were some among us who didn’t believe there was anything good about this form of government, this ‘democracy’, and that we were willing to say so – as long as we didn’t have to say it to government directly. As an aside, I should add that I develop an illogical irritation when South African Muslims say (especially to people in power): ‘We are a peaceful community.’ I know that Islam means peace and the attainment of peace and justice should be top priorities for all Muslims. But it annoys me because often the person making the comment made the same or similar comment in the 1980s. In those days it would then be followed up with accusations of kufr or other such things against those of us who believed that fighting against apartheid was an Islamic duty, a jihād. Consistent with their theology, such people now try to convince the current government that they are ‘peaceful’ just as they had tried to convince the apartheid government. (Justice, it seems, doesn’t feature.) I wondered how many others had sat in this room before us – prior to 1994 – talking about ‘peace’. Were there any Muslims, I wondered, who had sat here and tried to impress on PW Botha that we were ‘a peaceful community’. I don’t know the answer and I don’t think I want to. But, let me not dwell on personal and illogical gripes. Back to the meeting. I learnt recently that one of those who was sincerely explaining to government how we were ‘peaceful’ and responsible citizens was, a week later, extolling the virtues of the Taliban in the masjid. Peaceful Taliban? Non-violent Taliban? Another person was, a few weeks later, defending and justifying the spate of kidnappings and beheadings of journalists and aid workers taking place in Iraq. How does one call on Muslims to vote for the ANC before the election and, almost at the same time, claim that the contemporary model state is Afghanistan under the Taliban? Or say to ANC ministers that one respects our democracy and believes the government is doing a brilliant job, while saying to one’s followers that they should undertake jihād to establish a ‘caliphate’? My point here is not that Muslims have no right to support the Taliban or the crazies that want to chop off everyone’s head. Nor is it that such actions are against the spirit and letter of Islam (which I do believe but which can be the subject of another discussion). My point here is that Muslims are supposed to be consistent. If you support the Taliban, then say so and be willing to face the consequences. Not only in the safety of the masjid, but in the cabinet chamber of the Union Buildings too. Or is it that we do not know how to be consistent? Or that we prefer expediency to being principled, saying what we think people would like to hear rather than what we believe? Are we, perhaps, afraid of the powerful and therefore not willing to ‘speak truth to power’? Or are we, like good (bad) politicians, lying through our teeth when it suits us, practising some twisted form of taqiyah (of hiding what we really believe for our own protection) believing that if we speak the truth to those in power we will perhaps make Muslims look bad or our darul ulooms might be closed down or we might reinforce perceptions that we are terrorists? I’m generally critical of our government for a number of reasons. But I don’t believe our ministers are stupid, that they can’t see such taqiyah when it hits them in the face. Why do we not say in the face of power what we say in our masājid and in our madāris? If I believe in a Taliban state then I should be able to say that equally strongly to government as in the masjid. If I believe, as I do, that Taliban and Al-Qaida islam are a distortion of the true meaning of Islam and that Muslims need to marginalise such ideas in our community, then I should be willing to say that equally strongly in the masjid as to government. Edward Said’s death a year ago ended a life that epitomised his words about intellectuals as ‘those who are never more themselves than when, moved by metaphysical passions and disinterested principles of justice and truth, they denounce corruption, defend the weak (and) defy imperfect or oppressive authority.’ Of course, Said wasn’t the first to talk of intellectuals in this way. The Prophet Muhammad (s) is reported to have said that the ‘greatest jihād is to speak a word of truth in the face of an oppressive ruler.’ With this statement he challenges not only the intellectuals among us, but challenges all Muslims. If this is the greatest jihād, it is sad that we fail in a much lesser jihād: speaking our minds to a democratic and somewhat-sympathetic government and living true to what we say.
na’eem jeenah
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