Perhaps one of the most crucial and controversial points of difference between Islam and the West, is the extent of religious influence on the private and public lives of people. The concept of ‘a sovereign, democratic nation’ in the West is based on a strict division between church and the state (government). The rationale used for establishing this premise is that religion is entirely a personal matter for individuals; there is no logic in the faith or beliefs that people have, since they cannot be quantified and measured (Asad, 2003: 45). Hence religion, is a volatile and emotional domain, and people do not think or act with reason when religious beliefs and values begin affecting their decision-making. Since a country has to be governed in a logical manner, where only facts are weighed in to determine a course of action, therefore religion has no place in it.
This Western principle of creating a wall between the personal and public lives of people (religion governs, or should govern a n individuals personal actions such as deciding whether or not to drink alcohol, while politics is a public matter that affects the lives of the masses) is the main factor that sowed the roots of a growing bridge of misunderstanding between the Western countries and Muslim nations.
Many sociologists and political analysts strongly believe that it was the world-changing terrorist attacks of 9/11 that caused the animosity between both worlds. While the catastrophic event might have been the trigger, the actual causes of this rift originate well in the past.
Since the West has had limited contact with and hence an understanding of Muslim practices, many incorrect religious and cultural biases developed and festered over time (Mitchell, 2000, 5).
It is this toxic bias that Laura Deeb, in her book, An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi'i Lebanon, was aiming to correct. Set in Dahiyya, a small neighborhood in Beirut, Labanon. Through her ethnography, Deebs, a Lebanese Christian herself, has penned down a detailed account of how women in this Muslim country were engaged in many activities that served the community.
Deebs also highlights the fact that contrary to what has been projected by most Western theorists, a modern society and one governed by religion are not mutually exclusive. In Islam, the concept of a nation is symbolized by the word ‘ummah’, which refers to the entire global population of Muslims, regardless of their nationality (Hirschkind, 2006: 45).
The Holy Quran, the religious scripture of Islam, has in fact laid down detailed explanations about governing people, the rules that need to be instituted, as well as the rights that have been granted to women; this makes The Quran not just a holy book, but a collection of rules, regulations, systems and punishments that are required to maintain discipline, as well as law and order in the state. And it is this characteristic of The Quran that according to Hirschkind, makes it uniquely distinct from other scriptures. Hence, faulting Muslims for allowing their religion to permeate the public sphere is incorrect and invalid.
The argument that Deebs presents in her book, is that Lebanon, despite being a conservative Muslim state, recognizes that women’s involvement in the workforce is crucial for the development and progress of the country itself. The women in Al-Dahiyya are engaged in community services and Deebs describes them as empowered, intelligent and highly aware individuals, who believe in the role they have to play to improve the socio-economic conditions of their country, without letting go of their religious beliefs, or what Deebs has called ‘modern pious’ (Deeb, 2006: 65).
The argument presented is that these women are modern, in that they are actively involved in societal progress just as women in the West are, yet the dress code or eating and drinking norms they have are in accordance with the religion they practice. The issue of ‘pardah’ or wearing a veil in public has often been criticized as restricting a woman’s intellectual and personal growth, and preventing her from discovering her ambitions and confidence (Abu-Lughod, 2013: 178). The women in A-Dahiyya have contradicted this supposition as well. They wear a veil when they step out of their houses, as a sign of obedience to the Creator they believe in, but once they reach their place of work, the veil does not prevent them from performing their job and making important contributions to society. She even cites the example of Zainab, an important historical figure for Shiite Muslims of Lebanon, who, after her brother was martyred in the Battle of Karbala in 680 A.D., became the first recognized female activist figure in Islam (Deeb, 2006: 69).
Thus Deeb’s idea of modern-ness is “a value-laden comparison, in relation to people’s ideas about themselves, others, progress, and historical moments that hinge around encounters with global and local power and difference” (Deeb, 2006: 229).
Works Cited
Abu-Lughod, Leila. Do Muslim Women Need Saving? Boston: Harvard University Press, 2013. Print.
Asad, Talal. Formations of the Secular. California: Stanford University Press, 2003. Print.
Deeb, Laura. An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi'i Lebanon. . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. Print.
Hirschkind, Charles. The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics. Columbia : Columbia University Press, 2006. Print.
Mitchell, Timothy. The Stage of Modernity. Minnesota: University of Minnesota, 2000. Print.
Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978. Print.
