Now that The Independent has allowed itself to become a roost for its anti-Muslim harpies – Alibhai-Brown, Patterson, Hari and Burchill; The Guardian, with its left of centre views and its liberal leanings, seems a safer bet for the Muslim who wants to stay informed but keep his blood pressure within normal limits. Its main problem is of course that of most lefty papers: in its desire to be liberal and bohemian, it has become the haunt of a cadre of dysfunctional, disingenuous and, quite frankly, disgraceful Muslims.
Whether it is the usual schizophrenic Khalid Diab article which, on the one hand, complains about Muslim society’s crude stereotypes of western women whilst, on the other, propagates his own crude stereotypes of devout Muslim men; or the ex-Muslim science teacher Alom Shaha, who obviously hated Islam enough to leave it, but yet sees no irony in his haste to cash in on his ex-Muslim status; or the odious Safraz Mansoor, who bizarrely writes for "Muslim lifestyle" magazine Emel, despite penning article after article for The Guardian rejoicing in his non-adherence to even the most basic tenets of a Muslim lifestyle.
As is seen elsewhere in nature, the female of the species is often the more virulent and this seems to be true of The Guardian's Muslim journalists, in particular Riazat Butt. She initially presented The Guardian's Muslim podcast "Islamophonic" in 2007 and is now the paper's religious affairs correspondent. By 2009, she was ranked as the 26th most powerful Muslim woman in the UK according to the "Power List" produced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission but whether this is an indicator of piety, influence or bicep size is less obvious.
Butt's main stomping ground comes in the form of a weekly column called "Divine Dispatches", which purports to offer a round-up of all the religious news from around the globe. In reality, however, it does little more than snidely poke fun at religion for the largely secular Guardian readership, who must sit around sniggering at the stupidity of the devout. This year, her employers decided to send her to the Hajj, from which she would tweet her experiences and produce several articles along the way. The result is perhaps best summed up by one of our more vivacious ulama who said of the experience:
"My punishment this month? Reading Guardian 'journalist' Riazat Butt's Hajj Twitter feed aka punishment from Allah. It's been EXCRUCIATING!!"
I echo the pain he must be feeling. Despite being Muslim, Riazat Butt appeared to not let a chance go by to demonstrate an extreme religious irreverence. She appears to have spent the majority of her time on Hajj either making sly quips on Twitter (that descended into outright sneering in her articles) or complaining peevishly about the crowds, the heat and the sweat (one wonders if she has ever travelled on the London Underground during the summer). As the Hajj progressed, Butt sounded less like a Muslim pilgrim and more like a stereotypically ignorant American tourist, wandering through some breathtaking Renaissance-era piazza, oblivious to the wonders around him, and whingeing interminably about how there isn't a Starbucks or McDonald's in sight.
Her Twitter feed included the following low points:
We've stopped for a fag break, the prophet would be thrilled I'm sure
What exactly am I being punished for? What lesson is this teaching me?
When I can unveil and de-burqa? It's getting hot in here
Plan to book myself into a London day spa to repair myself. Any suggestions?
Is it wrong to leave hajj without experiencing a sense of unity and renewed faith? Does our response have to be uniform? Discuss
Landed in London, feel like kissing the tarmac
It's difficult to decide what was worse: the Hajj tweets themselves or the ones when she arrived back that were consumed with trying to figure out who had been voted off/sacked/left the plethora of reality TV shows that give meaning and structure to the lives of rather too many people in today's Britain.
Butt's attitude, characterised by a stubborn and unyielding desire not to be seen to be partial to her own religion, puzzled even some of her faithful non-Muslim Guardian followers, with peterNW1 asking, "...but why do you never capitalise the word 'Hajj'? Are there other hajjs in the world?"
Indeed.
So how could a thoughtful, probably intelligent, Muslim arrive at the stage where she makes jokes about what she should hold most dear to her heart, and all for the delight of her mainly non-Muslim audience? It would be easy – too easy – to label her a "sell-out" (or "self-hating Muslim", "Uncle Tom", "House Negro" or "coconut") and leave it at that but this issue deserves closer attention because what Riazat Butt is manifesting can be seen in so many of our brothers and sisters.
It can be seen in the "just call me Mo" character at work, who would rather bite off and spit out his own tongue before saying "salaam" to one of his co-religionists. It can be seen in the elegantly coiffured sister sitting awkwardly at the Wetherspoons "office do" sipping her orange juice whilst her colleagues tipsily embrace religious diversity, just as long as it comes with a nominated driver. It can be seen in the sharp-elbowed Muslim parents, who are so desperate for their increasingly confused offspring to "fit in", that they push them to take up musical instruments, Christmas plays, anglicised names, and the whole gamut of the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana lifestyle (which most non-Muslim "Mumsnet" mamas are aghast at) so that, by the end of their 12 years of schooling, their children find that the only thing they don't fit into is their religion.
As an affliction that is growing in our community, this is a phenomenon that needs to be dissected and analysed. How does an articulate, self-aware Muslim woman (like Riazat Butt) fall to such depths that she is prepared to provide cheap laughs for her secular audience at the expense of her religion? She would probably rationalise to herself that she is just showing equal irreverence to all religions and that she doesn't have to make an outward show of faith in order to be a good Muslim. This assertion is given some weight when taken together with an article she wrote for the Washington Post in 2007, called "On Not Being Muslim Enough", which was lovingly reprinted for Richard Dawkin's website as an example of someone well on the road to humanism. In it, Butt expresses her feeling that she somehow just doesn't measure up to everyone else's "Muslimness" despite, by her own admission, receiving a mostly warm and non-judgemental reception by the Muslim community after a childhood spent in a largely non-Muslim setting. She also admits that it isn't just a hijab issue. Rather, she describes the feeling of being with Muslims "as rocking up to a party sober when everyone else has been drunk for hours."
And she further describes her isolation from Muslims thus:
"I don't want to talk about foreign policy, radicals or community cohesion all the time. I can't get into Sami Yusuf any more than I can Hamza Yusuf. I am not a Muslim who has blossomed in front of her peers. I don't like being called sister by people who are not my brothers."
On the other hand, when she describes being with non-Muslims, there is a distinct warmth in her tone:
"Being in the company of non-Muslims is easier and more fun. It's is not a euphemism for drinking and partying. They respect my boundaries and our bonds are forged faster and stronger because there is less political and religious baggage to deal with. Islam intrigues them but, with them, my religion is only part of who I am. Clearly, this is a mistake because it makes me NME (not Muslim enough)."
When reading her work it is clear that, at one stage, Riazat Butt had a deeply felt belief in Allah and the religion of Islam and that there is a part of her that mourns its loss. One may speculate that the erosion probably began during a childhood that perhaps wasn't intentionally secular but rather thoughtlessly devoid of Islam. This, coupled with the observation that around the world Muslims seem to be trapped in a cycle of either being the most corrupt or the most abused people, may have made her question Islam whilst simultaneously drawing her towards the forces that shape modern society, secularism principal among them. Any growing devotion to secularism would increase in a media environment that celebrates it, that simultaneously blames all human inadequacies on organised religion, and that singles out Islam as particularly and uniquely problematic.
Privacy of belief – another secular construct whereby spirituality is not supposed to intrude into the public sphere – is again an area where Islam is likely to clash with secularism, especially when Islam is held up as the reason why we Muslims as an ummah are in the state that we are in.
Take this, together with the barrage of biased and misinformed highlighting of certain "uncomfortable" issues in Islam, and the inevitable "push/pull" reaction with each of these issues, and it is easy to see how, each time, a bit of one's faith could be sacrificed for the greater good of just "fitting in". As faith begins to erode in this way, one becomes even more prepared to shave off further aspects of Islam which are deemed unsuitable or unfashionable, all for the sake of conforming to the norm. Ultimately, a point is reached when one's connection with Allah is so weakened that one no longer finds any fulfilment or satisfaction in the religious duties of Islam, the irony being that this is usually seen as a confirmation of one's initial doubts.
A good example of this mindset was demonstrated during a 2007 Doha Debate on the niqab being a barrier to integration, when the supporter the motion, Reem Maghribi, a trustee of BMSD (British Muslims for Secular Democracy), stated very clearly that the reason why we have no choice but to conform to this step-wise erosion of our faith is because, at the end of the day, the western secular movement is far too powerful to even contemplate resisting.
It seems that too many of our brothers and sisters find themselves wearying in the fight to swim against the flow as they traverse the river of life, with its treacherous riptides and undercurrents. It appears they would prefer to be carried along, like froth upon the water, pausing now and again only to justify their capitulation to this seemingly irresistible force.
All this begs the question, "Where will it all end?" Many secularists call on Islam to rid itself of its "medieval" baggage and take its place among other religions, terra-formed by postmodernism. Right-thinking Muslims, however, see reformation for what it truly is: an evisceration aimed to reduce Allah's religion to the babble of fortune-cookie wisdom. We are, ourselves, beginning to realise that Islam is regarded as somewhat different: it will never truly fit into the pantheon of acceptable belief systems, despite intellectual gymnastics to remove and paper over the incompatibilities.
As Muslims, we were warned over 1,400 years ago about changing our religion for the sake of conformity. We were told that whatever changes we make in the religion, those forcing us to change will never accept us until we leave the religion completely. If this is the logical end then is the path worth travelling?
On the authority of Thawbaan , the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) said:
"The People will soon summon one another to attack you as people when eating invite others to share their food." Someone asked, "Will that be because of our small numbers at that time?" He replied, "No, you will be numerous at that time: but you will be froth and scum like that carried down by a torrent (of water), and Allah will take the fear of you from the breasts (hearts) of your enemy and cast al-wahn into your hearts." Someone asked, "O Messenger of Allah, what is al-wahn?" He replied, "Love of the world and dislike of death."
[A sahih hadith recorded by Abu Dawood and Ahmad]
Lying is categorically prohibited in Islam, yet the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) has specifically cursed the person who lies in order to make people laugh. He (s) said: "Woe to him who speaks and lies in order to make people laugh, woe to him."
[Sunan Abi Dawood vol. 3, no. 4972]
The Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) also said: "Avoid falsehood, for falsehood leads to wickedness, and wickedness to Hell; and if one continues to speak falsehood and makes falsehood his object, one will be recorded in Allah's presence as a great liar. And adhere to the truth, for truth leads to good deeds, and good deeds lead to Paradise. If one continues to speak the truth and makes truth his object, one will be recorded in Allah's presence as eminently truthful."
[Sunan Abi Dawood vol. 3, no. 4971]
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