note to antonio gramsci and camilla gibb

the application of the "hegemony" concept to mass media involves the "negotiation" of a particular idea, usually one supported or promoted by the power class, all the way to the top of the "truth" pile - everyone keeps saying it until everyone starts believing it, whatever relation it has to actual Truth.
and the whole "good muslim, bad muslim" thing has pretty much made it up there, i'd say. spew enough about fundamentalists vs moderates and beards and hijabs are more unwelcome than ever before (what about bearded hijabis? they tend to flourish in/from the indian subcontinent, you know... :) ). everyone knows what a good muslim is - they take the labels progressive, or moderate, or liberal (and i'm not directing any sarcasm or vitriol at such muslims, why, some of my best friends are moderates :), i'm simply discussing the labelling of us all from the outside) and the bad ones are politically radical, by-the-book religious practitioners, visually Other, etc etc... i mean, i feel like i'm beating the dead horse just by describing the labels.
so camilla gibb writes this book, sweetness in the belly, from the perspective of a white woman raised muslim, sufi-ish, in ethiopia, and her adventures in saving poor black children by teaching them qur'an, falling in love with a doctor who opens up the world of liberal islam to her, and then moves to england where she saves other refugees too. despite my tone, i actually did enjoy this book very much - gibb's fictional creation is based in anthropological research she conducted and lived, and even though she makes a sufi "saint" out of bilal al habash, it's still a rather fascinating story and reads pretty convincingly, indeed as the blurbs gush, opens windows onto understanding islam in ways most westerners have never done before.
but i got to this passage at the very end of the book and it almost ruined the whole thing for me (bold added, the killer words):

This is what happens in the West. Muslims from Pakistan pray alongside Muslims from Nigeria and Ethiopia and Malaysia and Iran, and because the only thing they share in common is the holy book, that becomes the sole basis of the new community; not culture, not tradition, not place... traditions are discarded as if they are filthy third-world clothes. "We were ignorant before," people say, as if it is only in te West that they have learned the true way of Islam.
Even our own imam, at the mosque we've been attending for years, reinforces this, calling for the importance of uniformity of practice and dress in the face of a hostile world...
Perhaps I am very fashion qadim, but to become as orthodox as this imam demands, I would have to abandon the religion I know. He's asking for nothing less than conversion. Why would I do such a thing? My religion is full of color and possibility and choice; it's a moderate interpretation, one that Aziz showed me was possible, one that allows you to use whatever means allow you to feel closer to God, be it saints, prayer beads or qat, one that allows you to have the occasional drink, work alongside men, go without a veil when you choose, sit alone with an unrelated man in a room, even hold his hand or even, dare I say it, to feel love for a Hindu.

okay sooo... even if we ignore the BLARING GLARING use of that icky phrase that i bolded... reading this just felt like such an emotional letdown. i don't intend any racism or whatever, but speaking as a brown woman, here's this white anthropologist(gibb) telling us what the most beautiful way to be Muslim is. i know, i know, it's just an opinion and she's certainly entitled to it and i won't tell anyone how to practice their faith... but i can't avoid getting this message, you know? i mean, come on!!
so i believe that not only the occasional drink, but even eating food that has been cooked with alcohol (no it does not burn off) is a disobedience of God and a sin; i never even held hands with a boy until i exchanged vows with DH and i think that was the right way to do it; i love some hindus myself, just not any guys in any romantic way... the question that is pulled from my innards while reading this is why is it so bad to be a practicing, devout muslim? that's the perspective that has hegemonized itself up to being a cultural aspect of american society. i could get on CNN tonight and deliver the most eloquent refutation, and it wouldn't make a smidgen of difference. this is what "people out there" think of islam now. maybe we just did too little, too late? i'm not saying it's not our fault. i'm just sort of futilely complaining about it. sorry, it's just a blog...
anyway, just to end on a brighter note, here is my boo-boo laughing on his baba's shoulders in shenandoah a coupla weeks ago...