Never thought I was going to enter this islamic store, or so does everyone call it in the area. Al-tawheed we al-Nour. It was quite an experience. I am heading to France this week so M. asked me for hunting pants that she can wear under her cloths in winter. She wanted them in pure cotton, and pointed me to this tawheed place. So, there I went. Upon entering the place, I thought I was transformed into this new world. A hive, except it is a lazy one. Only crowded. All the sellers are men with the praying sign on their forehead, some with long beards, the plupart majority wearing greyish short pants and weird colour shirts. You can't miss but feel that they all look the same. Of course, the sound of 'iza'et el coran al kareem' was screaming everywhere. Coran, ahadeeth, preaching, all what you want. So I headed to the women section, expecting the sellers to be women. Veiled women. Munaqaba women. Whatever. It is women section for god's sake. Never expected a man to s
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That brings us back to the question we were discussing at Hellme's a while back about whether there really is one Islam that you can talk about.
I think some Muslim nationalities have this identity crisis for a lot of political/cultural reasons. For Arabs this void used to be filled by Arab nationalism. During that period religion was very much in the private sphere. But Arabism failed in 1967 & started to recede so the search began for a new political/cultural identity & so political Ikhwan Islam is now the new identity.
Muslims from India & Pakistan have this issue also because they are a minority in the subcontinent compared to Hindus. They feel their identity as Muslims is constantly under threat so they respond by making it as pervasively public as possible.
Or it could be that Muslims still have this perception of themselves as one great Islamic nation or Caliphate. Since this global 'umma' was defeated & divided Muslims feel weak & under seige even if they happen to be a majority within their local community.
What I feel is that when religion moves from being a private relationship between you, your conscience & God the purity or the niya of is completely corrupted. When you start doing things to feel you belong to some religious/cultural/political club you're not doing them for God anymore.