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Book Review - January 15, 2004
Civil Democratic Islam:
Partners, Resources and Strategies by Cheryl Benard
Dr. Shahid Sheikh
Are you a radical fundamentalist, scriptural fundamentalist, conservative traditionalist, reformist traditionalist, modernist, mainstream secularist or radial secularist? If you are not sure about your religious label, Cheryl Benard can help. But wait. Women need not waste their valuable time, because these labels are reserved only for Muslim men. Muslim women get riveting attention from Benard only when they commit the serious “blunder” of wearing hijab. This topic will be discussed later.
Being “scientific” bent, Benard has devised and published a litmus test of a homegrown variety in Civil Democratic Islam: Partners, Resources, and Strategies, published in 2003. She has identified the following “hot” issues: Democracy, human rights, polygamy, implementation of Shari’a in criminal matters, minorities, women’s dress and husbands allowed to beat their wives. Benard expects all Muslim men to have deliberated on these issues and be ready with informed opinions. However, if you live in the West or North America and uninformed about theses issues and perhaps have little interest, do not despair. Benard is ready with a fast and simple answer: You are a fundamentalist. Whoa! If you have established any philanthropic institution for your community—such as, charity, Sunday school, community center, publishing house, funeral home, masjid or website—you are either a terrorist or potential terrorist. You should be under constant surveillance. Even though Benard does not have an understanding of Islam and Muslims in the West, she should get the credit for regularly watching the nightly television news. Those who paid serious attention to television news were more likely to favor restrictions of civil liberties of American Muslims, according to a new survey released on December 17, 2004 by Cornell University. In a relevant development, a new intelligence law, and now a court ruling, grants the United States government the power to strip a person of his/her citizenship even if he/she committed the crime after naturalization.
Do not get mad and wag a finger at Benard. You need only to blame your own entrepreneur spirit. Entrepreneurship is a prized ability in this vibrant, free-enterprise society. But it is what you think. Bernard is not convinced that you have it let alone having the optimum environment to exercise it. Benard’s argument goes like this: Since America is a racist, xenophobic society where Muslims are personae non grata, they are hard pressed to make a living let alone having the resources to establish any institution. The only way you can establish it is if fundamentalists from abroad fund you. And the only way they will fund you is if you are one of them. What a brilliant insight!
Benard claims to be troubled by the plight of Muslim women in Muslim countries. She blames their fundamentalist, patriarchal ruling classes. She is right in some cases, such as, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. However, she fails to explain how some fundamentalist dominated countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and Indonesia have elected women prime ministers while Europe, with the sole exception of United Kingdom, and America, Benard’s “role models” for Muslim women, have yet to come up with top women leaders. She is unclear as to what path Muslim women should take in their struggle for liberation. If it is the liberation, the Western way, then Benard will have to have some innovative strategies to convince those women because most do not seem to envy the Western women after seeing the end results of their liberation.
Benard considers hijab to be an international symbol of repression for Muslim women. In almost all the Middle Eastern countries and Iran, hijab is mandatory for women. The combined population of all these countries constitutes a miniscule part of the total 1.3 billion Muslims worldwide, and these countries are glaring anomalies in the Islamic world. Nonetheless, Benard is not deterred by any of this, and unabashedly marches forward to make the case against hijab. In her overzealousness, Benard does not think that these affected women should or are competent to present their own case. So, she deliberately ignores their views on this matter, which may not be the most pressing issue in their lives. Their suppressed voices, however, constantly reminds one of Edward Said’s scholarly masterpiece, Culture and Imperialism. In this case, Benard becomes the judge, the jury and the witness.
Benard wonders why should a Muslim woman wear hijab in our racist and sexist society when she knows that she will be ridiculed, discriminated and harassed. She argues that Muslim women cover their heads in the West because they crave public attention. Had she had the power, Benard says, she would not allow them to wear hijab. (Muslim women should thank God and Founding Fathers for this blessing). Tell that to a Labovitcher or Hasidim woman and watch the primetime evening news for the live coverage of President Bush’s speech from the Oval Office, denouncing you for being a hard core anti-Semitic. Not to mention the call from the Simon Wiesenthal Center demanding that your “shameful harangue” be followed by a trip to Auschwitz.
Benard does not explain why many American women are rejecting their “independence” and “liberty” to embrace a religion that allegedly suppresses them. Lucy Berrington‘s article--published in the Times Magazine (London) dated November 9, 1993--sheds some light on these converts:
It is even more ironic that most British converts should be women, given the widespread view in the West that Islam treats women poorly. In the United States, women converts outnumber men by four to one, and in Britain make up the bulk of the estimated 10,000 to 20,000 converts,…
Benard’s book purports to identify American partners in the war against terrorism and to bring the Islamic world in lock step alignment with the West. Not financial alignment, mind you, but only religious and political alignment. The partnership of Muslim women has been totally ignored, and Benard does not find any Muslim man modern enough to be a permanent American ally. Professor Akbar Ahmed who prides himself for being modern will definitely be upset to find out that Benard labels him a reformist traditionalist, only one step away from being a fundamentalist. And a reformist traditionalist can definitely backslide into a fundamentalist mind frame under certain circumstances, reveals Benard. Watch out for Akbar Ahmed! The extreme scarcity of permanent allies, according to Benard, leads her to conclude that America should use the famous toilet paper strategy in selecting the partners in the Islamic world.
Without any credentials or a thorough study of Islam, Benard launches a frontal assault on Islam and the Quran. She finds fault with almost everything there. She does not explain why Islam has become the fastest growing religion in this enlightened society. It is noteworthy that Islam has not only survived for the past 1400 years, but also has thrived throughout the world. If anything, Christianity is the one, which seems to be in retreat everywhere even though it is not under any assault from anywhere. One wonders, why? Benard should have explained all these intertwined issues.
Benard would have the reader believe that there are “Hadith wars” in Islam and urges the American government to “weigh in” on this debate and promote one Islamic school of law over another. What happened to the Western ideal of separation of church and state? Is Benard advocating a different set of values for non-Europeans? Does she want the reader to concur with the conclusion of Sahikh Abdur-Raheem Green:
It is obvious to many Muslims that the West does not really believe in “democracy” or indeed any of those ideals, such as “freedom of Speech,” “human rights” and so on, which it claims to cherish so deeply—except when it suits their self-interest.
America already has a very tarnished image in the Islamic world. It has already alienated a great majority of Muslims throughout the world through its misguided foreign policy. Who in the right mind will believe that this asinine assault on Islam and Muslims will win America friends in the Islamic world?
Who is the audience for Benard’s ravings? She is a Rand Corporation consultant, who has been entrusted with the job of mentoring American policymaker about Islam and Muslims in America. This book has been published under the auspices of the Rand Corporation, supposed to be a major think tank in the nation. Both the Rand Corporation and Benard would have the reader believe that American policymakers are some kinds of dimwits who need simple answers to complex situations. Did they really seek guidance from Benard or was she set upon them? No matter what, do they know about the way their image is projected nationally and internationally? Of course, they have their share of making mistakes and blunders, but it is all part of being a human. But no one has accused them of such dimwittedness so far. This insinuation is a new low for them. No one should make that determination about them based upon the only fact that they work for the current Bush Administration.
Under the ordinary circumstances, this book would not have merited the attention of scholars and students of Islam and American Muslims. At present, its only distinction is that it purports to provide guidance to American policymakers. One wonders if they are really relying on these kinds of “objective” analyses in their decision making or this book is an anomaly. We have about one hundred serious scholars of Islam and Muslims in the West. It is really a travesty of knowledge that Rand Corporation is feeding the American policymakers this kind of misguided generalizations in their presence.
Product Details:
ISBN: 0-8330-3438-3
Format: Paperback, pp 72
Price: $20, or can be downloaded free from the Rand Corporation website http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1716/
Pub. Date: 2003
Publisher: 1200 South Hayes Street, Arlington, VA 22202-5050
Dr. Shahid Sheikh is executive director of American Research Institute (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ariusa). He reviews books written about Muslim-Americans. He can be reached at aeriusa@hotmail.com.
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