Malawi: Reflections

An initial series of reflections on my stay in Malawi. 

Arrival: May 6^th, 2012 in Lilongwe, Malawi

I. Foreign

The first thing one notices is the brightness. It reflects off of the surfaces of every object. It gives everything an edge. The trees, the landscape, and the people; everything seems to exhibit an unabashed glow to the sleepy-eyed traveller.

The brightness makes everything more alive. It emphasizes like a highlighter those stark differences between the traveller’s pedantic land of departure, and this new, foreign landscape.

Then, one is struck by the gaze.

It seems to grow out of every glistening, black face under the bright sun. It seems to probe one’s entire body. “I’m sizing you up because you shouldn’t be figuring into my day,” it seems to say. This gaze unnerves as much as the brightness unarms.

Lilongwe, Malawi is therefore a place which, upon first approximation, makes one feel naked and at mercy of one’s surroundings. The heavy, enveloping atmosphere is dominated by an indigenous “slowness”. Slow, that is, compared to the schedule-oriented ways of a Western country like Canada. The pace seems just right for the locals, who could care less about what a foreigner wants to achieve in their country.

“Time does not ride on the wings of pursuit,” is what Muhammad Asad, the 20^th century Muslim intellectual, would have said about this place. The phrase rang in my head.

“So what if you’ve waited thirty minutes for a ride,” the country seems to say, “this is Malawi, and everyone’s been waiting longer than you have.”

One quickly learns to appreciate this. It forces patience into the character of a foreigner—at least temporarily. There’s no choice but to wait: to wait for one’s ride to arrive, to wait for the driver to change his flat tire, and to wait—with increasing impatience—for the ride to the hotel to end.

And what an unbearable ride it was. The taxi driver bought the dilapidated Toyota Camry off of someone. Its seats were bursting open as the seams, and the foamy innards were on display. The inside smelled of gasoline, as if the car was leaking.

(The driver’s seat is on the right side of the car since all vehicles drove on the left side of the street.)

All of this is wrapped up in the pervasive Malawian heat.

Every person the taxi passed by on the empty roads near the airport displayed the same unnerving gaze. To a fresh traveller still reeling from two days of flying, this look represented an annoyance, as if to say, “Oh God, not another one.”

But another had arrived. Another foreigner—another non-black, non-African, supposed do-gooder has landed. He went through local airport customs without having his bags checked, and along with the new Scottish friend that he met on the plane, bypassed a string of Africans waiting patiently to get into the country—all of us guests under the African sun.

II. Ghettos

     The next thing I knew, there’s a knock on my hotel door. I had passed out, and it was already morning. 8:12am local time. I opened my eyes, and the white mosquito net hung above my head like some apparition. My luggage lay on the hotel floor. I got up, opened the door, and came face-to-face with the receptionist.

“Steven?”

“Yes.”

“Someone for you in the front.”

I brushed my teeth, took a shower, and got dressed at lightning speed.

The “someone” was Pauline from Farm Radio Malawi, the host organization where I’m interning for two months. When I saw Pauline, I didn’t suspect that she was the one picking me up. She was casually on the phone and made no gesture to indicate that she was waiting for me. It was that everyday, worry-about-it-later attitude on display.

She took her time with the call while I sort of just stood around for a few minutes. She then shook my hand and took me to her car.

We drove mostly in silence, and I was to discover that my new co-workers weren’t a loud and chatty bunch. This wasn’t out of some intrinsic dullness, but is rather part-and-parcel of that same laidback attitude underpinning the city. Everyone seemed to have a certain ease with one another, and would rather get things done a little later than pull each other’s hair out.

Farm Radio Malawi concerns itself with the small time farmers who make up most of the country’s population. Agriculture accounts for the majority of Malawi’s economy, exports, and employment. Most people farm their own food to survive. Farm Radio works with local radio stations to communicate the latest agricultural research and news to farmers, who generally don’t read newspapers, and are too poor to on televisions. It’s a noble mandate, but the wheels of change turn slowly.

The local office has about ten staff members and is located in City Centre, a rather dull consortium of office spaces and stores in the middle of town.

As Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe is a weird place. It’s divided into separate geographical “areas”, a system adopted by South African civil planners who worked on the city. Some sections are poorer than others. The areas are numbered in no particular order, and the city is basically a collection of “villages”. The affluent areas like Area 14 (where I currently live) are full of residents who own dogs to scare away unruly locals, while poorer sections like Area 23 have homes that can go without a roof on a windy day.

The latter style of living dominates the city, and much of Malawi. It’s precisely this prevalence of poverty that makes a place like City Centre so seemingly out of touch. Who’s going to use the five star hotel that’s being built by the Chinese? Who’s going to visit the newly constructed parliament buildings (also built by the Chinese)? Farmers?

The Chinese didn’t build these larger-than-life structures for the average Malawian. The giant hotel is to be used for the African Union conference (where the corrupt dictators and politicians come to play) coming up this July. It’s to show how Malawi is ready—oh, SO ready—to join the rest of the “globalized” world—if it’s just given half a chance to show its economic potential.

It doesn’t take long for a visitor to realize what the centres of power in Malawi (that is, the government, and the offices of international lenders like the World Bank) plan for the country’s future. Malawi is dependent on money from institutions like the International Monetary Fund, as well as relief agencies that branch off of other countries—like the UK’s Department for International Development. The money that come in through these organizations do not come without strings attached.

After years of receiving donations (Malawi gained its independence in 1964), the country still lacks basic infrastructure. The amount of sickly beggars and street children is indicative of the lack of hospitals and schools in Lilongwe. Some blame local political corruption, while others blame international negligence. Still, others say it’s a mixture of both.

Whatever the reasons, despite the foreign donations and the government’s bland optimism, Area 23 is just a ten-minute taxi ride away from City Centre’s luxurious Golden Peacock Hotel.

III. Forward

     Unlike its neighbor Mozambique, which proudly features the handy Kalashnikov rifle in its national flag, Malawi’s history has been relatively peaceful. And if the imprint of human refuse, violence, and war marks a country’s coming of age, then one would hope for Malawi to stay forever young. There’s a quiet pristineness about the place—the way its distant trees weave a grey-orange twilight every night to make the landscape look endless.

Sure, there’s a big, ugly, hotel here and there, but if one looks a little higher and a little further, blue skies and rugged terrain still envelope “civilization”. You can’t get this sort of supra-expansive—almost emotional—feeling of the infinite in bigger cities. There’s a sense that construction workers haven’t plowed over Malawi yet.

It’s this observation of Malawi’s untouched qualities that makes one’s anticipation of the future so acute.

When I moved out of the Garden lodge Hotel and into a house in Area 14, I found myself the tenant of Francesco, a tanned and wiry white Malawian (“Born and bred,” he would tell you). He met his wife Carmen, a Canadian, when she moved to Malawi eight years ago to work for an NGO. They have two young children, one of whom is adopted.

Francesco, who owns a construction company, enunciated for me the first fatalistic vision of his native country I would hear.

“You can only help the people here move forward into the future,” he said when I told him that I was adjusting to the country’s slow pace, “I mean, a car comes whizzing by on the streets and the people here don’t even bother to move—that’s Malawi for you.”

He’s frustrated by the slow pace of work and life the locals he employed were accustomed to. Still, he’s glad that the locals would rather work for a fellow Malawian than the Chinese, whose apparently different outlook on work threatens key aspects of the “Malawian way”.

“But nothing’s gonna change,” Francesco continued, “I see people riled up sometimes [political instability and riots shook the country just months before] and angry or frustrated at the way things are, but so what? What happens? Nothing.”

Moving the country forward, a wonderfully vague phrase, means for people like Francesco turning Lilongwe into Nairobi (“What do we have here in Lilongwe? Two ten-story buildings?”). This means more work for his crew, and more money. Devaluation of the kwacha has made prices go up by roughly 300% in the past eight years (the kwacha floats as a currency integrated into the international economic systems), and Francesco’s buying power is dwindling.

If he’s right, and the inevitable forces of capital have their way with the “Warm Heart of Africa,” then Malawi will probably look very different five years from now. Of course, the process is already beginning. One has to squint and look beyond the roads and concrete buildings for a glimpse of natural beauty in Lilongwe. It’s not the other way around.

IV. “White Man”

     I met Sam Chimbuya at a meeting concerning Malawi’s potential for agriculture. He’s a fulltime journalist for The Nation, one of two Malawian dailies (The Daily Telegraph being the other). He knows the city better than most, and lives in Area 23.

We decided to drive around the city during the weekend. I left my notebook and camera in my boss’s car, but Sam’s explanations of the city sufficed. We came to Area 23, to his home. Sam is in his early thirties and is married with two daughters.

“I don’t like this place,” he said of his newly occupied home, “I’m thinking about moving out.” He explained off-hand how he didn’t like parking the car too close to the front yard for fear of having his stereo or car battery stolen. It was hard to see how parking it outside the neighbourhood gate was any better.

We watched DVDs of Malawian music videos in his living room (“Lucius Banda! He’s one of Africa’s biggest artists and producers!”), a bizarre experience that probably can’t be replicated elsewhere. One gets the feeling that these videos are more entertaining when accompanied with recreational drugs. I was ready to leave.

“So, should we take the car or walk?” Sam asked. I wanted to see Area 23 in detail, but it was getting dark and I didn’t want to, say, die, so I opted to be driven.

We drove somewhat aimlessly and chatted. Finally, I asked Sam a serious question.

“Sam, so what do you think about these other countries doing all this work in Malawi?”

“Yes, my friend, it’s happening, isn’t it?” a typically Malawian non-answer answer. But he continued: “But it will help Malawi develop.”

What does that mean though?

“Malawi will attract more foreign investment, and more business, it’ll get bigger,” he answered.

But will that help the average Malawian?

“No, of course not, look around you. The white man will never allow us to be self-dependent. The Congo is one of the richest places on earth in terms of natural resources, but looks at it now.”

Suffice it to say I hadn’t expected this blunt assertion.

“The IMF, World Bank, they’re all here to offer their ‘help’, but there are conditions,” Sam said. “These people don’t like to negotiate, and we have to build things that the average person here can’t even use or access.”

We passed by rows of houses lined with bricks on their rooftops. Women walked along the side of the road with naked babies hoisted onto their backs, kept close to their bodies by cheap-looking pieces of cloth. The market consisted of men sitting on the streets selling electric cables, tomatoes, and fake leather belts.

We arrived at a soccer field, if one could call it that. A snotty-nosed kid in tattered clothes looked my way. He pointed directly at my face. I waved.

He waved back, smiled, and yelled “Nzungu!!” to the collective delight of his friends.

“What does that mean, Sam—nzungu?”

“It means white man.”

Hamza Yusuf and Contemporary Muslim Discourse

By all indications, Hamza Yusuf is the most influential and recognizable Muslim figure in North America. He routinely gives talks at conventions in the United States and Canada that draw out tens of thousands of Muslims. Having studied with well-known scholars in the Muslim world, Yusuf adds to his sophisticated “Western” sensibilities a serious Islamic academic background.

He also co-founded the first Muslim seminary in the United States (Zaytuna College). He was an independent advisor to George W. Bush and other political figures (to no avail it would seem). He routinely appears on media outlets throughout the world.

So why is it that the non-Muslim populations in North America have basically no idea who he is? Why is it that his voice, and the voices of Muslim scholars like him, is almost never heard in the contemporary Muslim discourse of North America?

It’s true that Yusuf has spoken at non-Muslim gatherings and has appeared on some mainstream media programs since 9/11. This is good. For those of us who observe the Muslim communities in North America, it is obvious that even Yusuf’s religious detractors recognize his position as a pillar of the community. Yet, his presence is lacking when journalists report on issues of particular interest to Muslims. The examples are too many to list.

Sh. Hamza Yusuf spoke at the 2011 RIS Convention and gave  what may perhaps be the most important lecture (in recent years) regarding the role of Muslims in the issue of economic justice. The talk was heard by thousands of Muslims, but the conference was ignored by most established media.

This absence is emblematic of the Western Muslim communities’ abhorrent public relations situation in general. The relationship between the mass media and the vast majority of Muslim populations in the West has been unproductive. Many Muslims blame the media for perpetuating lies and stereotypes and choose not to participate. This is understandable. However, this stark absence of Muslim voices leaves a vacuum to be filled. Unfortunately, those who fill such a space often misrepresent both Muslims and Islam itself.

This is primarily why Hamza Yusuf is not a household name when it comes to setting the framework of debate on Muslim-related issues. His spot has already been taken. Of course, this can be said about many leaders within the Muslim communities, all of whom deserve to be heard when there’s a discussion on “honor killings”, “halal meat”, so-called “Islamic terrorism”, or whatever else.

Those who do pontificate on such issues usually lack the scholarly erudition of a Yusuf (or of another qualified scholar). Sadly, many such commentators delegate to themselves the task of partitioning what kind of Muslim can or cannot be trusted. Often, these very commentators describe themselves as subscribing to the Muslim faith, but paint the bulk of “lived Islam” as incompatible with “Western values”. This isolates them as the lone, brave, Muslims who stand up to the onslaught of intolerance shown to them by their co-religionists.

This handful of commentators has better public relations than all the Western Muslim communities combined.

These problems can be solved by putting someone like Shaykh Hamza Yusuf at the center of public discussions on Islam and Muslims. It’s not so we can show off his erudition. Rather, placing serious scholars and Muslim intellectuals in the middle of agenda-setting media is the only way we can solve what is perhaps the most pressing sociopolitical problem facing Muslims in North America today. Given the prevalence of television and visual media, this means having knowledgeable Muslim commentators appear on outlets like CNN and CBC. This is certainly not being done in Canada, for example.

Muslim organizations have to actively pursue journalists and feed them stories. They have to regularly meet with the board members of major newspapers and other media outlets. A journalist’s success in terms of completing a story is highly dependent on whether his/her sources call or email back on time (this is known as “the waiting game”). As far as Muslim-related matters are concerned, respected scholars like Hamza Yusuf should consistently be one of those sources. The bulk of Muslims in the West should become those sources. Organizations like the Muslim Public Affairs Council (U.S.) as well as Civic Muslims (Canada), among other groups, have already started doing these things.

Being committed to these tasks will help foster understanding and dispels myths. It will familiarize the broader society with Muslims and their concerns. It will help facilitate justice and peace for Muslims and non-Muslims this continent.

Islam Care Centre to expand for more services

Published on: Muslim Link, April 6th, 2012
[http://www.muslimlink.ca/newss/local/islam-care-centre-to-expand-for-more-services]

The popular Islamic Care Centre has just received the official rubber stamp from the city of Ottawa to renovate its property. The 18-year-old centre at 321 Lisgar St. wants to refurbish the aging facility as well as construct a new building in order to expand services.

“Demand has really gone up,” said Raed Arab, a member of the Centre’s board of directors. “We want to increase our capacity in order to serve more people.”

City councillors met on Mar. 28 at a city council meeting to officially approve the expansion project. Prior to the meeting, leaders from the centre met regularly with the city to explain what they wanted to do.

“The city also wants us to renovate, since our building is getting very old,” said Sulaiman Khan, a manager at the centre. “More people have come to pray, and more families have come to seek out services, so we are also expanding our facility.”

The zoning has already been approved, but detailed plans for the expansion have yet to be completed.

According to the centre’s own literature, the project just went through “Phase 2” of the reconstruction work plan. The next phase comprises of the actual construction.

The centre will use its spacious backyard for the new building, which is set to have four floors and a basement. The basement and main floor will be the prayer halls. The second floor will be a library, the third will be for family services, and the fourth floor will be a set of conference rooms.

“We are going to do some fundraising as well, so we hope the community will come out to support us,” Mr. Arab said. “So far, the response from the community has been very positive.”

The centre’s new building is supposed to accommodate the increasing demand for social services from the Ottawa Muslim community. Counselling for immigrants and young Muslims will form the major focus of the service expansion.

The centre also hopes to develop a more sophisticated library of Islamic literature. For purposes of dawah (calling to Allah), the centre’s leaders say that the current Islamic information centre needs to be expanded.

“The city has been very, very cooperative with us,” Mr. Arab said, “We’ve gone through all the steps required to get approval and we’ve done a lot of talking back and forth already.”

Mr. Arab and Mr. Khan said that getting permission was not the difficult part. Drawing up detailed plans and doing the actual construction will be the project’s most challenging phase.

“Insha Allah (God willing) they are successful,” said Raheel Khosa, an Ottawa resident and a frequenter of the Centre. “I pray a lot at this building, and it’s time for an expansion, since every time I come here I see more people, alhamdullilah (praise be to Allah).”

Over four million dollars is needed to complete the project, which is estimated for completion in the next two years.

 

Muslim cemeteries to open in Richmond Hill and Ottawa this summer

Published on: Muslim Link, April 6th, 2012
[http://www.muslimlink.ca/newss/local/muslim-cemeteries-to-open-in-richmond-hill-and-ottawa-this-summer]

The city of Ottawa and Richmond Hill are two municipalities in Ontario that are about to get their first Islamic cemeteries this summer.

The Ottawa Muslim Cemetery Inc. has been fundraising for the past four years to complete the cemetery project in southern Ottawa. It hopes to wrap things up in the next couple of months in order to begin official operations in June.

“We got licencing from the province four years ago,” said Abu Nazir, the President of the OMC. “We purchased land in 2005, which was much harder than getting the license, but the actual project started in the mid 90’s.”

Mr. Nazir said he hopes the Ottawa Muslim community will increase their support in the coming months to help finish this project.

“There has never been a proper burial ground for Muslims in this city, and I think the Muslim presence here goes back to about a century,” Mr. Nazir said.

He also noted that the remaining work on the cemetery can’t be done unless the right equipment is purchased. The majority of the fundraising being done is centred on acquiring the equipment needed to complete the construction of the 6-hectare property.

“It’s hard to believe that this city doesn’t have a cemetery for Muslims,” said Ottawa resident Ammad Wajahat, whose grandmother passed away recently. “I think there are around 100,000 Muslims in Ottawa, so it’ll definitely be a big help for us.”

In Greater Toronto, the city’s very first Muslim cemetery completed its ground breaking ceremony last November. It’s set to open officially in Richmond Hill, Ontario in June.

The Toronto Muslim Cemetery Corporation got the operating licence from the provincial government in late February. More work is being done on construction and ground-levelling, but the cemetery is ready to receive bodies. The price is $1,500 per plot.

“We have around 300,000 Muslim in the Toronto area,” said Abdulhaq Ingar, one of the founding members of the cemetery project. “So there’s a lot of demand for doing burials according to religious guidelines, and it’s about time we give this option to our population here.”

Most Toronto Muslims are either forced to accept religious compromises for burial, or have to go through services that arrange for Islamic burials in non-Muslim cemeteries. Until now, there has been no plot of land designated specifically for Islamic burials in Greater Toronto.

The Toronto cemetery is also a joint Sunni-Shia venture aimed at bringing the Muslim community closer. “I’m leading the Sunni side of things,” Mr. Ingar said, “but the Shia side have their own thing going.”

The fourteen-hectare property was purchased from a Jewish cemetery group called the Beth Olam Cemetery Corp for under seven million dollars.

Mr. Ingar said that the Toronto cemetery is already beginning to receive pre-order calls from individuals who have terminally ill relatives.

 

Tories pass controversial omnibus crime bill

Published on: Muslim Link, March 30th, 2012
[http://www.muslimlink.ca/in-focus/in-focus/tories-pass-controversial-omnibus-crime-bill]

The Conservatives have passed the omnibus crime bill on Mar. 12 as they promised they would within the first 100 days of sitting Parliament. Bill C-10continues to be a polarizing piece of legislation, and key provinces continue to voice their opposition.

The Safe Streets and Communities Act passed the House by a vote of 154 to 129, and is supposed to be the first of several Tory anti-crime initiatives. The federal government has estimated that implementing this Act will cost the country around $1 billion at least.

This has led Ontario Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur to say in a public statement Monday that “Ontario taxpayers cannot be expected to pay the full costs for federal anti-crime initiatives.”

Ms. Meilleur also says that Ontario is not ready for the 1500 new inmates that the Act will likely produce.

Both the Canadian Council on American Islamic Relations and the Canadian Civil Liberties Union have voiced concern over the introduction of “mandatory minimums”. This stipulates that a minimum amount of jail time will have to be served for certain low-level crimes. The CCLU said in a public statement that they do not see this new measure decreasing crime rate.

“Now, I think the other fear is that the Conservatives have a majority and can pass whatever they please on this issue,” Ihsaan Gardee, executive director of CAIR-CAN says.

Other civil society groups that have voiced concern over the omnibus bill include the Canadian Bar Association and the Urban Health Research Initiative. The Initiative even published an open letter to a year ago to the federal government opposing section of the bill, then called Bill S-10.

Among the bill’s most vigorous critics is Quebec Justice Minister Jean-Marc Fournier, who introduced amendments last year to the bill that were eventually rebuffed.

“We would have preferred Parliament accept the amendments put forward by the Quebec government in conjunction with a number of organizations,” Mr. Fournier says in a statement.

Bill C-10 is estimated to cost Quebec up to $600 million.

NDP Justice critic Jack Harris also says that the bill will eventually end up exacerbating crime, not preventing it. Mr. Harris says that Bill C-10 will increase recidivism, put people in jail longer, and imprison people at a higher rate. He said that this means that less people will receive rehabilitation.

The Tories have made no apologies or compromises in the face of criticism. Conservative Justice Minister Rob Nicholson says in a public statement that”These are very reasonable measures. They go after those who sexually exploit children, people in the child pornography business and it goes after drug traffickers, so this will be welcomed particularly by victims, those involved with law enforcement, and as we know, Canadians are supportive of what we are doing in this area.”

Much of the opposition salutes the provisions in the bill that try to deal with sexual exploitation of children. The problem is that Bill C-10 is so large in scope that more common ground can be found if the bill was passed in pieces. The bill is an omnibus version of nine different pieces of legislation that the Tories tried to pass when they were still a minority.

 

Prayers essential part of school life: Muslim students

Published on: Muslim Link, March 11th, 2012
[http://www.muslimlink.ca/newss/local/prayers-essential-part-of-school-life-muslim-students] 

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board voted 8-4 on Feb. 14 to reject a motion calling for a report to be done on religious policies in schools. Trustee Pam FitzGerald proposed the motion, and said that accommodation for Muslim students interferes with class time.

Ms. FitzGerald said that missing lessons for Fridays prayers meant that the same lessons would have to be repeated on Mondays. She was afraid that teachers would have to put in extra work to repeat these missed lessons. These concerns were not included or mentioned in the rejected motion.

“The most I’ve ever missed for a class is around two to three minutes,” said 17-year-old Nour El-Nadr, the “Head Girl” at Ottawa’s Bell High School Muslim Students Association.

“The teacher usually takes around five to ten minutes to even get the class started, so me being a tiny bit late doesn’t affect my learning whatsoever.”

Nour said that Friday prayers are important for the unity of Muslim students at school, which is one of the top priorities of the association in the first place.

“We never missed large portions of class,” said 17-year-old Ibrahim Soukary, “Head Boy” of the Bell High School.

“First of all, Friday prayers are not held during class times,” Ibrahim noted, “it’s always held at the beginning of lunch time.”

“There were times when we went a couple of minutes into class time because of jumah (Friday prayers), but we told the khatib (speaker) to pace himself,” Ibrahim said.

He added that Friday prayers at school have become an essential part of student life for Muslim students at his high school. He said that over a hundred students attend each Friday.

“Having it at school is definitely a positive thing, because it reminds us of a lot of things, like the need to respect others, especially our teachers and fellow students,” Ibrahim said.

Marwan Saeed, 15, of Merivale High School echoes these sentiments. Marwan started the ritual of Friday prayers at his high school with another friend. Since then, the numbers have gone up.

“If we stopped holding jumah at school, that’d be much more of an inconvenience for us, since we would have to go out of school or something.”

Marwan said that having to go off campus for Friday prayers would mean returning for class much later. He noted that having Friday prayers at school actually saves time and ensures that students arrive back at classes on time.

Like Marwan, Colonel By High School’s Mujeeb Mirza also initiated on-campus Friday prayers about a year ago with his friends. Around a dozen or so students attend every week.

“I think students have the right to practice their religious obligations at school,” said the 16-year-old Mujeeb, whose school does not have a Muslim organization. “Before, we had to skip prayers because there was no accommodation, and there was no mosque nearby for us to go to.”

Mujeeb said that if no one initiated something at school, it was either miss jumah altogether or go off campus to a distant mosque. He said that the latter option would certainly have meant that he would miss class time. He said that having Friday prayers at school ultimately meant saving time and helping Muslim students arrive to class promptly.

Hundreds of Muslim community members attended the Feb. 14 meeting. The language of the rejected motion was asked on several occasions to be clarified, as several parents were not happy with what they noted as a “negative” framework. Ms. FitzGerald said that she would not seek to pass the motion again.

“People should be glad that jumaa is held at school,” Ibrahim added. “It keeps everybody mindful and respectful like I said, but it also helps keep everybody happy because we don’t have to go far or miss class.”

“If people don’t understand what we’re doing, or think that something that we do is negative, then they should either ask our leaders, or just come and ask us,” Ibrahim said.

Red Herring: Jason Kenney and the Niqab

Decided to post this from a couple of months ago:

The decision to ban the niqab during citizenship ceremonies by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney takes effect immediately. It could not have come at a better time for the Conservative Party of Canada.

Stephen Harper’s administration is being criticized for pulling out of Kyoto, for its handling of the housing situation on the Attawapiskat reserve, and for a controversial new border security deal with the U.S. The hasty niqab ban is a calculated move. It is an attempt at changing the course of political discussion at the present moment.

By his own ministry’s admission, Kenney and his staff do not know exactly how many Muslim women actually show up to the ceremonies with face veils. The arrived decision is supposedly predicated upon the complaints from several judges, citizens, and MPs—all of whom remain unnamed.

A lack of seriousness by the women who don the veil is the apparent suspicion that these complaints carry. If the woman is wearing a veil, then how can one be sure that they are reciting the oath of citizenship, as required by law?

This contention, for anyone who has been to a citizenship ceremony, is difficult to take seriously. I am a Chinese Canadian citizen who took his oath over a decade ago. I have been to many other ceremonies since then. Not once have I come across a case where designated personnel of the state strolled the aisles between oath-taking individuals to make sure their lips were moving.

It is not such a stretch to propose then that the concern with proper recitation of the citizenship oath is just a way to bring the niqab issue into public discussion. For many, the veil is a symbol of gender inequality. It is a post-9/11 sign that reminds many people of another time, when women were not given the same opportunities and rights as their male counterparts.

Real as that sentiment may be, wearing the niqab is still not as much of a contravention against constitutional democracy as many may think. Even if women who don the veil due to their own ignorance, core Canadian values still protect the individual against state coercion. Calling the practice “bizarre”, as Minister Kenney did recently, does not neutralize this binding factor.

Playing the “Muslim card” has become an international favourite. Numerous European and Asian countries have either implemented a ban on the niqab or have flirted with the idea. By presenting to Canadian a “remedy” to an ailment that does not exist, Minister Kenney shows that playing on post-9/11 fears and prejudices is still a politically effective ploy.

True, in many families women may very well be forced to wear a veil. However, banning the garment at citizenship ceremonies cannot possibly be seen as a blow to Muslim patriarchy. Sexism, as it exists in all communities, is a much deeper and complicated matter not exclusive to Muslims.

It certainly does not help that Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced several months ago that “Islamicism” remains Canada’s greatest external threat. The coalescing of this foreign concern and the domestic debate around the niqab compliment each other, and is perhaps capable of suspending the average Canadian’s attention away from more pressing matters.

The truth of the matter is, if Minister Kenney wants to ensure that every single set of lips utter the citizenship oath correctly at each ceremony, he can do so by designating specific personnel. It may be a comical “solution”, but focusing exclusively on women who wear the niqab makes no sense.

Canadian citizenship is coveted around the world for good reason. The protection of individual rights, and the incorporation of religious freedoms within our constitutional democracy contribute greatly to Canada’s international reputation. As a Canadian Muslim by choice, I have come across plenty of intelligent and determined women who wear the niqab.

Their steadfast hold on Canadian identity and Islam should remind Minister Kenney that being a Canadian is not about one’s apparel, but one’s character. 

Monia Mazigh, Canada, and Arab Spring

Published On (revised): Embassy Magazine, December 14th, 2011
[https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment?ui=2&ik=5aaeb5cd1d&view=att&th=1343e6a1a1cd8043&attid=0.1&disp=inline&realattid=f_gw6uc6vt0&safe=1&zw&saduie=AG9B_P-8LEgiqDdm3Vd9MVcJKJzN&sadet=1323903879496&sads=bDjOIpKEVp4kZXhagT3Q29aKlAc&sadssc=1]

When it comes to serious political change in the Middle East, Monia Mazigh is a hopeful skeptic. The Tunisian-Canadian academic recently gave a talk in Ottawa to “The Group of 78” on the future of the Arab Spring and its effects on Canadian foreign policy.

She spent substantial time talking about Canada’s selective policy in terms of dealing with the Arab Spring. Most importantly, the Harper administration has not been vocal about the democratic transition that is starting to take place to take place in Egypt. On the other hand, the Canadian military played a substantial role in the ousting of Moammar Ghadafi in Libya, and has imposed sanctions on the Assad regime in Syria.

Mazigh is the wife of Maher Arar, who was awarded $10,000,000 by the Harper administration for being wrongfully renditioned to Syria at the behest of the U.S. Arar spent around a year in a coffin-sized Syrian cell and was tortured. Mazigh worked tirelessly to get her husband out, and knows first-hand the brutality that the Syrian regime is capable of.

She extends this same caution and suspicion to the rest of the Middle East dictatorships, including Egypt, which is going through its first post-Mubarak elections. Mazigh noted that a simple change of guard in Egypt is not enough. The current military leadership must go. Canada, given its role vis a vis other countries challenged by the Arab Spring, should assume a more active role in supporting the democratic movement in Egypt.

Instead, the Harper administration seems content to settle for criticism against Syria and its allies—namely Iran and its unclear nuclear ambitions. Among others, foreign affairs minister John Baird has announced more than once the need to support Israel in the case of a war with Iran. It doesn’t help that Iran is also known to have very war relations with Hezbollah, a political party in Lebanon currently on Canada’s list of terrorist organizations.

Add on to that Prime Minister Harper’s September announcement that “Islamicism” is Canada’s biggest foreign policy concern, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why the Harper administration is selective in its policy with the Arab Spring. Hosni Mubarak was seen as an ally in the War on Terror, and capable of suppressing the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt, which is leading all parties right now in the ongoing elections in Egypt.

It was precisely this paranoid mentality in dealing with international terrorism that sent Arar off to a Syrian prison. Mazigh knows that, despite the current fear from the Harper administration, the best way to alleviate the threat of terror is through democracy. The Muslim Brotherhood renounced violence years ago, and has been acknowledged by the Brookings Institute, among other think tanks, as a party not to be feared.

Canada would do well to support the democratization process in Egypt if Harper is right and terrorism ought to be the nation’s main concern. Political scientists in the United States like Vali Nasr, who now works in the Obama State Department, have long acknowledged that incorporating Islamists into the democratic process also defangs them. Having a political voice and a place in the democratic system discourages violent behaviour.

Mazigh was also right in mentioning that Egypt’s current military regime led by Muhammad Hussein Tantawi could use a little prodding by the international community in terms of relinquishing power. Tantawi was a known ally of Mubarak within the Egyptian regime, and the military has taken violent steps to quell recent demonstrations by Egyptians who believe that their revolution is being stalled by the military.

Canada’s role in the region gives it substantial leverage to deal with the situation in Egypt. The Harper administration’s muted position on one of the key geopolitical nations in the Middle East indicates that Canadian foreign policy in the area is not primarily based on the willingness to see democratization.

Mazigh said that the Egyptian democratic movement, led by a substantial amount of youth, could use help from the international community. Dozens of Egyptians died in November when the Egyptian Armed Forces used live ammunition to quell protests. Canada has an opportunity to forge a productive relationship with the new Egypt by exerting pressure on Tantawi and the military.

Some have also noted that the revolts in places like Egypt and Syria are not guided by formal ideologies, thus prolonging uncertainty. Mazigh noted that this diversity is not a weakness in the movements of the Arab Spring, but can be exploited by hardline Islamists or foreign powers if those in the movement are not careful.

She pointed out that the surprising success of the socially conservative Salafi al-Nour party might become cause for concern. The party is backed by Saudi Arabia, which has been a centre for reactionary positions regarding the Arab Spring.

Nonetheless, should Canada become more involved in supporting Egyptian democratization, a positive relationship can be forged early on with one of the world’s most strategic geopolitical hotspots, no matter who gets elected.

Local Muslim Women Fight Against Domestic Violence

Published on Open File Ottawa on December 1st, 2011
[http://ottawa.openfile.ca/ottawa/text/local-muslim-women-fight-against-domestic-violence] 

When it comes to domestic violence education, Khadija Haffajee says Ottawa’s Muslim leadership needs to do more for their communities.

Haffajee has worked for more than 30 years in the Ottawa area as a community activist and educator. She recently spoke at the Ottawa launch of the “Neighbours, Friends, and Families Muslim Project” education campaign on domestic violence.

More community leaders could have showed support at that launch, says Haffajee.

“It would have been better to see more imams at the event,” she says. “Imams and community leaders need to be at the forefront to deal with the issue.”

Campaign organizer Shawana Shah said that many such leaders were invited, but none showed up.

Haffajee also noted in her speech that she is disappointed by the small number of Ottawa imams who signed on to a recent statement by Canadian Muslim leaders to condemn domestic violence.

The statement, entitled “Call to Action to Eradicate Domestic Violence”, cites religious scripture as a means of denouncing domestic violence, and it lists a six-point plan to deal with the issue. Over 100 organizations and community leaders have signed the statement, but only a handful are from Ottawa.

That statement coincides with the highly publicized Shafia family trial that began in October, which sees two Ottawa parents and their son accused of murdering three of the father’s children and his first wife in an apparent honour killing.

“[Domestic violence] is a problem we have to take on as a society,” says Anver Malam, imam of Ottawa’s Jami Omar mosque. Malam signed the statement to eradicate domestic violence, but did not attend the campaign launch. “We can’t just treat the symptoms. We have to tackle the roots of the problem,” he says.

Malam also said that Muslim communities should not be singled out in terms of struggling with domestic violence. “There is a deeper problem that we need to deal with as a society, like unemployment, which creates frustration in a lot of men who take it out on their family members,” he says.

Imam Mohamed Badat of Ottawa’s Masjid Bilal agrees with Malam’s view. “Domestic violence is something that the Muslim community struggles with, just like any other community,” he says.

Malam noted that now’s the time to raise awareness about Islam’s view of domestic violence. “We have to make it clear to people that Islam does not sanction murder of any sort, and that the so-called honour killings have nothing to do with our religion,” he says.

Haffajee said that although she knows how busy imams are with their congregations, she wants them to lead the fight against domestic violence.

“People don’t like to talk about the issue, and they hope that the problem will just go away,” Haffajee says, adding that she hopes the current campaign will help break the silence.

“The significance of the campaign is to open communication on the issue, and educate people to recognize warning signs that relate to domestic violence,” said Shah, who also works with Immigrant Women’s Services Ottawa.

Shah and others working on the campaign are trying to find 30 “champions” to take a lead in challenging domestic violence.

“Domestic violence is a problem that cuts across religions, cultures, ethnicities, and no one is immune,” Haffajee says. “It’s always an uphill struggle.”

The Arab Spring and US Credibility in the Region

Occurring within a week of each other, two recent deaths illustrate gracefully the Janus-faced nature of American political ethos.

I am writing of the deaths of Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, the son of Anwar al-Awlaki, and Libyan dictator Mouammar Ghadafi. The former was a 16-year old American citizen, the latter a one-time client of the United States.  Abdulrahman al-Awlaki was the son of Yemeni-American Anwar al-Awlaki, who died from an American drone attack a few weeks ago. Abdulrahman died the same way. On the other hand, Ghadafi was captured by the rebel forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC). He later died under rather mysterious circumstances.

The Obama administration claimed victory in both cases. In reality, both deaths illustrate on different levels the extent of American paranoia and deception. Enough has been said about its inexplicable execution of the teenager Abdulrahman al-Awlaki. The Washington Post obtained his birth certificate to confirm his age. Barack Obama has successfully gained for himself the most radical executive power of all, more than the Constitution or the Bill of Rights ever sought to prevent.

Mouammar Ghadhafi was once the friend of the United States. Human Rights Watch’s Johanne Mariner pointed out the obvious:

“One remembers Reagan’s efforts to confront Qaddafi decades ago: the 1986 missile strikes, the skirmishes in the Gulf of Sidra, the labeling of Libya’s leader as the “mad dog of the Middle East,” and of Libya as a rogue state.

But the line that one is tempted to draw between U.S./Libyan relations then and U.S./Libyan relations now isn’t straight.  While Qaddafi is now despised as an enemy, for much of the past decade he was treated as a friend.

In 2006, announcing that the U.S. was restoring full diplomatic relations with Libya, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held up Libya’s leadership as ‘a model’ for others to follow. Qaddafi’s glaring violations of human rights—which, in 2011, gave the U.S. cause for military intervention—were not simply overlooked during the Bush years; they were exploited.”

I’ve written about the implications of such exploitation, as have others. So where is the United States headed? The Arab Spring, among its list of impressive achievements, has also circumvented much of the rhetoric of the War on Terror. Not only has it made Al Qaeda almost irrelevant, it has exposed the hypocritical nature of U.S. policy vis a vis the popular uprisings.

After all, the U.S. claimed Mubarak’s regime as “stable” when it was under severe pressure in February. The U.S. continue to back the corrupt and violent regimes of Bahrain and Yemen, only to see the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to one of the most vocal leaders of the latter country’s opposition movement. It is starting to lose its hold on the region altogether.

And let us not forget the biggest time bomb of all. Every year, the United States gives more than $3,000,000,000 US to the state of Israel. It is a practice in aid-giving that has even established pundits scratching their heads. Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories, along with its burgeoning demography problem may force it to enter a serious national crisis within a decade.

How will the United States deal with these changes?