I wished to respond to a number of comments in order to clarify some issues that have been presented but I first would like to thank everyone who has taken the trouble and time to write their opinions on this article (even if we don't quite see eye to eye). Please keep reading and offering your ideas and thoughts.
There is a bit of a trend among professional journalists to launch tirades against any blogger who has the temerity to take issue with them - as evidenced by these recent outbursts from Andrew Marr and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown.
What they don't realise is that whilst the world of journalism has moved away from the deferential interviewing style (e.g. "Have you anything else to say to a grateful nation, Minister?") to the current more "Paxman-esque" approach (e.g. "Why is this lying b*****d lying to me?"), there has been a concurrent increase in cynicism and disenchantment felt by the general public towards the media.
Riazat Butt should therefore not pout too much when any contributions she makes to the website of a nationally distributed newspaper are critically reviewed and dissected.
As for the accusations of being sanctimonious and patronising to criticise Butt, I would point out that it is easy to label someone's writing style as such when one disagrees with the points raised. The allegation of the unislamic nature of one Muslim criticising another is easily rebutted by pointing out that when one Muslim is in a public position, where he/she is at risk of being considered by some in her community as a role model, then her conduct may be criticised without being "unislamic". Furthermore, this was not a personal attack on Butt; rather, I had wanted to write about the increasing number of condescending modernists within the Muslim community and Butt's articles, coupled with her attitude whilst on Hajj, was an excellent example of this.
People scrimp and save money for years, put their names forward in national lotteries (especially in developing countries) and make sincere prayers to Allah that they are granted this once in a lifetime privilege to participate in the Hajj. When you arrive, you are confronted by the most overwhelming mass of humanity you will ever likely see - pilgrims of every skin colour; every language; every age group; able-bodied and disabled; rich and poor; illiterate and educated; paupers side by side with kings; and all dressed in two simple sheets of white cloth (which resemble every Muslim’s funeral shroud) to remind them that before Allah, they are all equal. For someone to turn up and use the opportunity to "tweet" snide remarks back to the folks at home is quite imbecilic. If you just don't "get it", I am sincerely sorry.
A brief re-examination at her Twitter feed confirmed that there wasn't one tweet that was remotely positive (aside from one mentioning some nice Tunisian ladies and another about a good "chicken shop" near the Haram). Compare and contrast with her tweets once she had arrived back in London and reported on the Anglican Church's General Synod. These were informative, engaging and quite often complimentary. I have to say that I agree with @Anonymous 7/12/10 13:32, who suggested that her irreverence stems from a deep seated insecurity about appearing too "Islamic" in front of her colleagues.
Now, for some specific rebuttals:
For those who excuse her by saying that she was just having "fun", I would ask them, "Why exactly would anyone go for Hajj in order to have fun?" I have heard Hajj described as life-changing, overwhelming, exhausting, mind-blowing, but never "fun". If she was after a goofy old time and a bit of a lounge about then I would suggest Disney Land Paris for her next assignment.
I entirely agree that a person's spiritual connection is between themselves and Allah – that is until they decide to chat about it, analyse it and generally put it out for public edification and the titillation of their 1,268 twitter followers, as well as anyone having a vague glance at The Guardian's CIF Belief page.
This leads me to the whole premise of the article. One of Butt's final Hajj tweets was this: "Is it wrong to leave hajj without experiencing a sense of unity and renewed faith? Does our response have to be uniform? Discuss"
And so I did just that. I can't really see how anyone could possibly mind.
As I have mentioned before, there is a growing problem of post-modernist inspired doubt within the Muslim community, where people feel inhibited and embarrassed by their religion and are forced into whittling it down, just so that they can feel as though they are fitting in. Butt's earlier article for the Washington Post, as well as her Hajj twitter feed, were very revealing as they clearly demonstrated someone who feels she needs to conform with unspoken norms which clearly don't include a Muslim's natural reverence for his/her religion. When people are psychologically defeated over their religion, it can have implications on their inner spirituality so that when they find themselves in the company of other Muslims or performing religious acts like prayer, fasting and pilgrimage, they feel awkward and different. This then has the ironic effect of reinforcing the initial doubt they had in the first place.
And finally, if Riazat is reading this, I wish to offer my apologies for any hurt you may have felt. It was clear from your twitter feed that you turned up at the Hajj completely mentally and emotionally unprepared. Perhaps you thought it would be an assignment just like any other; that you could stand outside of it and observe it in a completely detached way. Nothing could be further from the truth as any hajji can vouch for: no one can be unmoved by the Hajj and leave it unaffected. You were obviously affected but not in the way you perhaps hoped, which must have left you feeling isolated and possibly a bit betrayed. I would suggest you resist the temptation to blame these feelings on external factors – the heat, the crowds, losing your luggage, etc. As Muslims, we have been commanded by Allah, each of us, to perform the Hajj if we are physically and financially able. It is a commandment which applies to all Muslims until the Day of Judgment and is not restricted to a period in our history when only a few thousand people would attend. Allah knew all about the difficulties that people would experience in the 2010 Hajj when he commanded Prophet Ibrahim (peace and blessings be upon him) to build the Ka'bah, as is mentioned in the Quran:
"And proclaim to mankind the Hajj. They will come to you on foot and on every lean camel, they will come from every deep and distant (wide) mountain highway (to perform Hajj)."
(22:26-27)
And yet the commandant to attend still stands. Why is that? Is it perhaps because Allah knows that as Muslims living in this endlessly distracting, maddening world, we need to be able to quieten our thoughts and remind ourselves why we are here?
"And I have not created the Jinn and Man but that they worship Me" (51:57)
The hardships and distractions of the Hajj can be viewed as an analogy of this life. As a reminder for both of us, we should not let ourselves be distracted but rather focus on the real reason we are here.
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