Islamo-phobic? Think Again

Part 1: Cultural Lessons from Girls of Riyadh and Kuwait

Recently I read a fascinating book unlike any other. Translated into English from Arabic, the Girls of Riyadh compiles a series of emails written by a young Saudi Arabian woman who, at the time of the book’s release, was in Chicago pursuing an endodontic degree.

At the same time the author’s portrayals of her peers are culturally predictable, they are likewise disarmingly surprising. Author Rajaa Alsanea cleverly applies her keen sense of humor and incredibly insightful observations to delightful tales of girlish antics. Within the context of Riyadh’s societal and cultural mores, each girl’s story captures the imagination of readers from the East—and the curiosity of those from the West.

A Worldview “Better Felt Than Telt”
As a woman, I am intrigued by accounts of these girls’ romances, coupled with their remarkable achievements in academia, not to mention their notable career aspirations. I am further moved that sincerely held religious convictions guide every aspect of their lives. Moreover, in reading these published emails, I’m reminded of my own youth.

You see, from 1971-1973, I taught at the American School of Kuwait and, in the summer of 1974, I tutored the Kuwaiti Head of Parliament’s daughter in preparation for her freshman year of college. This young lady was on her way to the United States, and my job was to school her in colloquialisms and to increase her English vocabulary. To that end, I was invited into her life at home, at work, and at play.

Coupled with Alanea’s portrayals of girls of Riyadh, my experiences with girls of Kuwait demonstrate how a defined worldview shapes popular culture, education, economies, and geo-political policies enforced by leaders. For this reason, those already invested in a worldview do well to reflect upon that view’s reach and impact, particularly how it relates to competing or clashing ones. Unfortunately, too many among us choose instead to remain ignorant.

Failing to grasp worldviews vying for supremacy in our changing times, the un- or mis- informed fall prey to winds of change that are certain to set their vessels adrift. Effective dialogue between East and West depends on knowledge. It’s for this reason that I share simple, but crucial lessons I’ve learned from rare glimpses into the ordinary lives of affluent young women of Islam. To these, I add accounts of extraordinary experiences of ordinary Americans when Islamic philosophy and methodology are imposed on them against their will.

Not the Western Way
Set apart by her uncommon background, Alsanea invites readers (both “ladies and gentlemen”) to join her as if she were a tour guide to a new world, one “closer than what you’d imagine.” Her expressed task is to provide the inside scoop of conservative Islamic society as experienced by privileged young Saudi women. Escapades of the clique of girl friends she introduces demonstrate how some Muslim women are beginning to carve out their own way—a reformed way, yes, but not the Western way. Alsanea makes this point very clear.

Keep in mind that “reform” in the Muslim world means something entirely different to Muslims from what it means to infidels—i.e., non-Muslims. To Asanea and her peers, liberated womanhood rests somewhere in between contemporary Western society and sharia.

I repeat: It’s not the Western way. Even girl friend Michelle, whose maternal family is as American as apple pie, returns “home” to Saudi Arabia from her “visits” stateside. The faith of her father beckons Michelle back to her Islamic society largely veiled from Western view.

The Girls of Kuwait
Also among the affluent upper class, my Kuwaiti student was confident, outspoken, and curious. Myself only twenty-five years of age, we weren’t much distanced in age. Though I was her teacher, she came across, in many ways, as “older” (certainly more aggressive) than I.

Budding Women of Islam
Reading Girls of Riyadh refreshed my recollections of this young lady’s group of Kuwaiti girl friends, whose everyday lives were akin to those of the Riyadh girls. Though decades distanced the Saudi clique from their Kuwaiti counterparts, their experiences as Muslim women were more similar than not.

First hand observation of contemporary desert life, framed by seventh-century Arabian culture, intrigued me in the 1970s, and all the more today. Whether in Riyadh or Kuwait City, a Muslim woman’s lot in life is defined by nonnegotiable religious restrictions. While upper class Gulf women study hard and subsequently receive advanced education degrees, they remain under the thumb of a decidedly patriarchal system.

Marrying well (and successfully) tops the list of “to dos” for a dutiful Muslim woman. Muhammad referred to women as man “toys”; and hell, he warned, is replete with ungrateful women who had failed to please their husbands. If that’s not enough, a man’s testimony in courts of law carries the weight of two women’s testimonies, and women in strict Islamic states may not drive or vote.

Separation of the Sexes
Toward the close of my summer employment in 1974, I was invited to a traditional graduation party for my Kuwaiti student and, in a very unique way, gained access to a privileged world unknown to most.

A Westerner unencumbered by limitations, as these, I eyed with great curiosity the scores of young Kuwaiti women who attended that graduation celebration to which I was invited decades earlier. Once out of the public eye, these lovely girls shed their abiyas to reveal an astonishing array of the latest European designer fashions.

Musicians were the only men allowed, but judging from the flashy, form-enhancing attire of these voluptuous young women, one would think their sole charge was to attract and hook a man! Suffice it to say, once a girl is earmarked for marriage, she is further immersed in training to perfect “the art of seduction,” which, I learned, is already very well developed by her teens.

Each Kuwaiti girl in attendance was lavished in jewels (no dime store imitations!). Sculpted hair and exotic make-up mirrored—but preceded and exceeded in sophistication—the Designing Women style of America’s 1980s. What author Rajaa Alsanea characterized as her “signature, shameless, crimson-red lipstick” painted the lips and fashionably formed fingernails of my student and her peers.

Competition and Jealousy
As the evening progressed, each guest was compelled, one after another, to take the dance floor (what appeared to be a long hallway down the center of the room) and “strut her stuff,” as if reenacting an old fashioned “cake walk.” Among onlookers were moms, known humorously as “capital funds and mothers of sons,” who checked out each beauty for suitability as a potential bride for their sons.

Assuming the posture of Paris runway models, guests took their turns while huddled onlookers chattered among themselves. To the best of her ability, each girl averted “the evil eye” which, if directed her way, bestowed bad luck (or so she thought). Even so, each dancer’s bloodline, family wealth, and status were as freely denigrated as her physical appearance. What the girls refer to as “Satan’s evil whisperings” could be downright brutal—e.g., She’s too fat, has a big nose and/or an ugly dress. So-and-so’s prettier, etc.

As with the Saudi girls, so it was with girls of Kuwait. Though highly competitive and openly critical of one another, they clearly enjoyed lifelong friendships marked by genuine affection. Shill trills (similar to wild West warrior whoops) were interjected periodically as if to say, “Way to go, girl friend!” These were interspersed with “pep” chants—i.e., “a thousand blessings and peace be upon you, beloved of Allah, Muhammad!”

When it came my turn to take center stage at this graduation shindig, I stood to my feet, headed down the runway, and immediately felt the sting of buzzing gossip. Once my gig was up, the girls praised my “beauty and grace.” Of course, I recognized that these young women had surely noticed my dress wasn’t a designer original, nor were my “jewels” museum quality. Admittedly, my dance moves were iffy; nevertheless, to my credit, I competed well in the “big hair” department. It was, after all, the seventies!

Superstition and Fate
No big surprises here: Girlish competition and jealousies are typical of all teens, especially among the affluent. However, it puzzles me that, no matter how sophisticated and educated they are, girls of Riyadh and Kuwait succumb to superstition. Ouija boards answer their questions, and personal fortunes are sought out through “readings” of coffee grounds and tealeaves. Even when referenced nonchalantly, as if only in fun, signs of the Zodiac weigh heavily in predicting success of soon-to-be-arranged marriages.

“Fate” likewise drives the Eastern mind. While a resident of Kuwait, I observed that some Muslims seem to think as follows: “If I live, I live; if I die, I die. Whether or not I conduct my affairs rationally, my plight in life rests solely in the hands of Fate. So be it.”

Predictably, the girls of Riyadh echoed this line of reasoning. One’s plight in love rests solely in the hands of Fate. So be it. At her wedding party in Riyadh, for example, the bride’s friends moaned, “The Prophet Muhammad used to send up prayers for the unlovely ones; and now the ugly ones seem to be in demand these days, and not us.” That’s just the way it is. Bummers!

East is East, and West is West
Perhaps more entertaining than anthropomorphically relevant, our girls of Riyadh nonetheless have much to teach us about Islamic culture and faith. I accept that today’s ever expanding “social media” shows Eastern kids to have much in common with their Western counterparts in growing up, schooling, relating, loving, and finding their way in our increasingly complex world.

Rightly so, modern Saudi women perceive themselves as catalysts for reform; but they do not look to the West for definition. Once again, I emphasize that the “new way” they’re pioneering is not the Western way. For us to imagine otherwise is unfounded.

Privileged Saudi women appear far more interested in becoming excellent doctors, dentists, and journalists than they are in “wiping Israel off the face of the Earth.” I’m guessing that, once they come of age, these ladies would rather “make love, not war.” But make no mistake. Hollywood may tickle the fancies of ‘tweens, teens, and twenty-somethings but, in the end, Islamic culture will not be overturned. Nor will the mission of Islam be thwarted. Not by these lassies anyway.

The good news is that a large majority of Muslims, despite gender, distance themselves from radicalism. Problem is, if only a tiny percentage of a huge population endorses Wahhabi extremism, the threat posed is monumental and mustn’t be airbrushed in the name of “Let’s all just get along.” 7

More to follow, Part 2.

Rajaa Alsanea. Girls of Riyadh. (London: Penguin Books, 2005).

Sharia is the restrictive code of laws and rules that govern the life and behavior of Muslims. Based on the Qur’an and Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad, sharia references “a path or way to a water hole in the desert.”

David Wallechinsky. “The10 Worst Living Dictators.” Parade Magazine (February 16, 2003): 4.

Abiyas are black “tents” (modesty coverings) worn by Gulf State Muslim women while in public. Abiyas do not replace, but rather overlay “street clothes” (deemed appropriate only in privacy).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_antisemitism.

Quran (2:191-193).

7 Without doubt Islam is the largest non-Christian religion in the world, and some fifteen percent of all of the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims sympathize with extremism. Spokesperson for the military wing of Hamas in Gaza admits: “Our people love death.” Furthermore, he adds, “Our goal is to die for the sake of God; and if we live, we want to humiliate Jews and trample on their necks.”

Bamboozled by Buddlam

Today’s Tactical Pursuit of Religious Commonality
Part 3: Bamboozled by Buddlam

Generally speaking, the study of cultural geography is a good thing. Ongoing dialogue allows one to learn more about others’ beliefs and cultures and hopefully fosters goodwill among world citizens.1 Unfortunately today’s “diversity principle” is more about syncretism than it’s about education.

Beyond research, we’re called “to change our whole way of thinking” because—in the words of Millard Fuller (founder of Habitat for Humanity)—“the New Order of the Spirit is confronting and challenging us.”

An emerging “new consciousness” springs from a growing awareness among Westerners of the inherent wisdom emanating from the East. Cosmic humanist Lucile Green contends that Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Shinto may well differ, but together they portray the world as “multidimensional.” Learning through them, she continues, serves “to build the foundations of a new world order”—specifically, one distinguished by religious pluralism.2

Fact is postmodernists herald most any brand of spirituality that, by politically correct standards, isn’t unduly divisive.3 For the sake of building upon “common ground”—this, in an effort to reconcile creeds that logically clash—compliant religionists (whether Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and/or Muslim) forfeit (or feign to forfeit) traditional core doctrines of their respective religions. 4

Buddlam’s “Path Proper”: Straight but not Narrow
Syncretistic Buddlam poses no special problem to Buddhists who historically endorse “many paths.” To the contrary, one expects Islamic fundamentalists to be more rigid. However, “pacifists” from among them readily embrace Buddhism, but for self-serving reasons. By feigning friendship with one’s nemesis, or by recasting beliefs as being somehow “similar,” these hope to gain tactical advantage. Once Islam’s taproot is sufficiently grounded, the faithful may drop any temporal façade of conciliation to summons the dar-al-kuffer to heed the call of Allah to Islam. 5

The “straight path” to which Muslims must adhere features five pillars—the first of which is Islamic creed: “There is no God But Allah, and Muhammad is His prophet.” The next is prayer; then, charity, the observance of Ramadan by fasting, and finally an once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca. 6

Buddha’s Four Noble Truths begin with suffering, caused by desire and overcome by an eightfold path of right knowledge, effort, aspiration, speech, behavior, livelihood, mindfulness, and absorption. By following eight steps of the “path proper,” Buddhists hope to curtail suffering by overcoming desire. The destination for this “path” bears not the slightest resemblance to Islam’s endpoint. 7

Nevertheless, in the name of religious harmony, Buddlam advances and recasts a smorgasbord of mismatched creeds and practices until incongruent belief systems of Buddhism and Islam appear to be analogous when they’re not. In reality, the resulting “synchrony” is as unrecognizable and highly unlikely as a mythological half-man, half-horse (a cryptid).8

Creed: “No God …”
Originally recognized as Al-Lat, Allah was known to Arabs in Saudi Arabia even before Islam existed. The “moon god” was one of 360 gods worshipped by the tribes in Mecca. Ironically, strictly monotheistic Islamic creed recognizes no god but Allah. In stark contrast, Buddhism recognizes no god at all. Any pretense of reconciling these two anomalies (“no God but Allah” with “no god at all”) is purely semantic.9

Prayer: Prostration/Buddhist Meditation
Even as Muslims wash, prostrate themselves facing Mecca, and then pray five times daily, Buddhists similarly prostrate themselves three times before prayer. However, supposed similarities end when Buddlam presumes to equate Buddhist meditation with Islamist instruction from holy texts. Whereas the latter involves focused cognition, the former requires an altered state of consciousness. Furthermore, Buddlamists liken devotional practices that are found in many of the Sufi traditions—e.g., Whirling Dervishes—to those specifically associated with Westerners who frequent Mahayana Buddhist centers—namely, chanting, singing, and “vajra-dances.”10

Almsgiving: Almsgiving/Far-reaching Perfections
Both Islam and Buddhism hold individuals responsible for their actions; both adhere to strict ethics; and both practice general cleanliness and charity. As almsgiving is a pillar of Islam, all forms of Buddhism teach generosity, one of the so-called “far-reaching perfections.” While almsgiving for Muslims is motivated by compulsion, it’s pragmatism that goads Buddhists to generosity. After all, Buddhists accept that no god or gods can be counted on, not even the Buddha himself; and of ninety-nine titles attributed to Allah, “love” is not one of them.11

Fasting (Ramadan): Halal/Vegetarianism
Though dietary restraints attend Judeo-Christian tradition, it’s not so much what goes into the body that matters most; rather, it’s what comes out of the heart and mouth.12 Yet again, pragmatism spurs Buddhists to vegetarianism; and, under legal compulsion, Muslims fast until sunset throughout the month of Ramadan. Additionally, while offering a prayer for animals to be reborn in heaven, Islamists follow the halal method of slaughter. Both camps refuse pork and alcohol.

Pilgrimage: Saudi Hajj/India Pilgrimage
Once in their lives, many followers of the various Buddhist traditions aspire to make a pilgrimage to the holy site in India where Buddha attained enlightenment; and Muslims make their hajj journey to Mecca. Buddhist devotees circumambulate and prostrate themselves before a prime Buddhist temple with a stone cube draped in cloth at its center. This, of course, is reminiscent of Islamists encircling the Kaaba stone in Mecca. The point being, though outward acts of piety—i.e., prayer, almsgiving, dietary restrictions, pilgrimage—may indeed suggest similitude, fundamental end goals of extinction (Buddhism) and dominance (Islam) do not.13

• Finally: Trivializing Essential Creed as Superfluous—e.g., Nature of God, Afterlife

The Great “No”/ Detached Nothingness

In Arabic, “lah” means "no," so it’s a negation. Buddlam toys with the word “Allah” by suggesting that the “-lah” at its end designates nothingness. Chanters who decrease one syllable of the Muslim mantra (Allahu akbar) one “lah” at a time ostensibly render Allah "the ‘Great No’"— i.e., the unimaginable pure breath of God.14

Keep in mind that Allah literally means “the God”—to Islamists, the only God. By tampering with the word itself, Buddlamists obliterate the very backbone of an in-your-face religion that simply won’t be refused. For the Islamist, the semblance of religious harmony is but temporal. Once the battle cry of triumph is raised, and the ummah takes form, Islamists will entertain syncretistic nonsense no longer.

Muslim Paradise/Buddhist Nirvana
Buddlamists target and, then, dismiss incompatible beliefs relating to the “afterlife” as if they were inconsequential when, fundamentally, they are not. An ultimate destination theology is no side issue. Indeed, afterlife theology dates back to ancient Egypt, and all major religions speak to it.

Whereas Muslim Paradise is portrayed as a garden full of physical pleasures, succulent fruit, and refreshing rivers (and hell is forever), Buddhists instead anticipate a state of detachment or nothingness (nirvana). Likened to one’s escaping a burning building, Buddhist samsara (“hell”) is limited.

Unless martyred, there’s no assurance a Muslim will merit reward for his good deeds, even when the good- outweigh bad- deeds committed. Arbitrary by nature, Allah makes final decisions as he pleases. In contrast, “a black substance that results from wrongdoing” (karma) is said to determine a Buddhist’s providence; and the highest (therefore, a religiously rudimentary) principle in Buddhism is known as “voidness,” said to unite everything beyond all names and concepts.15

As if to make a point with doctrinal spin, Buddlam equates the Buddhist principle of detachment (voidness) with the practice of circumcision among some Islamists. Pairing afterlife doctrines of Buddhists and Islamists this way serves to trivialize an essential creed. Fact is, no matter how it’s portrayed, negotiating one’s afterlife is no small matter.

In his right mind, no would-be Muslim martyr would even consider embracing extinction (voidness) in exchange for promise of seventy-two virgins in Paradise! (What man would?) Be sure, minus the spin, core beliefs of Islamic Paradise and Buddhist nirvana are conceptually different as night and day.16

Final Word
Whether presented as Chrislam, Buddlam, or Hindlam, religious syncretism guarantees global harmony and, in time, will deliver a worldwide coalition that ostensibly shares “one mind.”17

Though open to any non-monotheistic belief system, the complicit show ever-increasing rancor toward Bible believers who firmly “set their faces as flint” without regard for political correctness.18 In the new order of a new age, nonconformists as these are deemed “divisive” and even dispensable.19

Not so in the Kingdom of Christ. They’re lauded as overcomers.20 But not by human might or power.21 It’s by the grace of God that these manage to escape the seduction of religious syncretism.

1. First developed in the late 1950s, the Delphi Technique is a psychological process whereby a predetermined outcome is decided; and all discussions and decisions are made to lead a group to that consensus. Collaborative learning, conflict resolution, and Hegelian Dialectics are analogous terms.
2. Lucile Green. Journey to a Governed World. (Berkeley: the Uniquest Foundation, 1992): 34. Note: In Latin “religion” means “to bind”—that is, to a belief or philosophy that might or might not involve worship of a god or gods. Powerful incentives of guilt and/or fear beckon the gullible to one-world dogma, as expounded in globalism’s bible, the United Nations Charter. Not the Ten Commandments. The UNESCO Declaration of Tolerance (1995) essentially elevates rejection of moral/religious absolutism to the status of legal requirement in one-world politics.
3. Called anti-logic by Plato, deconstructionism is the argument-counter argument ploy of fifth-century sophists who applied spurious reasoning solely to win arguments, never to establish truth. Postmodernism, or high theory, is modern relativism applied to language. In brief, it’s cerebral political correctness.
4. With escalating fervency, a clarion call for religious tolerance trailed synchronized terrorist attacks on America (11 September 2001). Thereafter, presenting Jesus as the only way met with unprecedented disapproval. Political correctness mandated instead an all-inclusive, milk-toast spirituality that everyone could affirm. Goaded by the world’s political and religious leaders, peace loving Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, etc. linked arms as “brothers.” Living peacefully with all men may indeed be biblical, but sharing in the hamartia (Greek, “missing the mark with grave consequences following”) of syncretism is not. Better for God’s people to “come out” than to linger at the wide gate, or saunter down the broad way to destruction (Romans 12:18; Revelation 18:3-5a; Matthew 7:13).
5. One of Islam’s most distinguished theologians Al-Ghazzali (1058-1111) once wrote: “Know that a lie is not wrong in itself. If a lie is the only way of obtaining a good result, it is permissible. We must lie when truth leads to unpleasant results.”?
6. Huston Smith. “Buddhism” and “Islam.” The Religions of Man. (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1965): 90-159; 217-253.
7. Debra Rae. “Buddhism.” ABCs of Globalism: A Vigilant Christian’s Glossary. (Lafayette: Huntington House Publishers, 1999): 82-84.
8. http://www.answers.com/topic/cryptid#ixzz1SC22wxrV.
9. "Allah was known to the pre-Islamic Arabs; he was one of the Meccan deities." Encyclopedia of Islam, ed. Gibb, I:406.
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufi_whirling.
11. William Wagner. “The Quiet Revolution.” How Islam Plans to Change the World. (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2004): 39-42.
12. Matthew 15:11.
13. Mahathera, Nyanatiloka. Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines, 4th ed. (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, ISBN 9552400198). Available online. Retrieved July 16, 2011.
14. http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/study/islam/general/common_features_islam_buddhism.html.
15. http://.falundafa.org/book/eng/dymf_5.htm.
16. Despite profound doctrinal variations, major religions share one great teaching—namely, human beings are immortal, and their spirits come from a divine world and eventually will return there. Since even the earliest spiritual expressions, this stands as the singular great hope for believers. See: Keith L. Brooks. The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error (1 John 4:6). (Chicago: Moody Press, 1969): 1-2.
17. Revelation 17:13.
18. In Isaiah 50:7 to set one’s face as flint (a hard rock) denotes resolution not to shrink from suffering or contempt.
19. John 16:2.
20. Revelation 3:21.
21. Zechariah 4:6.