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Everything that matters to me (and maybe you as well)

Archive for the tag “politics”

26 Sep 2012

Maybe This is How We Talk About Religion & Politics? (Hopefully Without Starting WWIII)

So last week, what with the entire planet imploding over the disgustingly offensive ‘movie’ some half-brained inchworm made about the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), I put the question to you guys as to whether or not it was actually possible to have a civil and conducive conversation about religion and politics in today’s crazy ol’ world.

As someone who identifies as both a feminist and a Muslim (and a pretty devout one when it actually comes down to it), I’ve got a good number of friends who follow a variety of religions or don’t follow any religion at all. So, to me, it seems pretty important to figure out a way that I can talk to both my Muslim and non-Muslim friends about the stuff that matters most to them. Some of which, undoubtedly, has to do with religion and politics.

So, after a week-long process of fielding people’s reactions to religious and political discussions, as well as some personal soul searching, I’ve come up with a couple of ways that can (hopefully) help make the religion and politics conversation go down a lot smoother for all of us.

  • Know when its appropriate – Look, Ms. Manners made those rules for a reason. And that reason is to avoid making an inappropriate buffoon out of yourself. People need to realize that, sometimes, God and politics just need to stay out of the mix. For example, in many countries, its actually illegal to discuss someone’s religion or political leanings in a job interview. Because, in that situation, it is wildly inappropriate and out of place. As a rule of thumb, you should always know where you stand with the person you’re having this kind of touchy conversation with. If you don’t then its probably just better for you to cut your losses and avoid any possibly inappropriate drama altogether.
  • Remember: You are NOT an expert – Whenever someone tries to sell me on the idea that they’re some religion and politics expert, I always try to suppress the growing urge to laugh in their face. NO ONE IS AN EXPERT ON ALL RELIGION AND ALL POLITICS. No one. Just because you read a few Wikipedia articles or a few book excerpts does not make you an expert. Honestly, the best way to go into any religious or political discussion is with an oblivious attitude. Because when you go into it with that kind of attitude you actually end up listening to the other person. Which, you know, helps.
  • Get specific – Don’t go into the subject with just a bunch of general questions. That can easily lead to misunderstandings, crossed signals and, eventually, a shouting match. Keep your questions specific or make sure that the person questioning you specifies what it is that they are curious about. That way, the person getting questioned doesn’t get flustered and confused and the person asking actually learns something.
  • Be curious, not judgmental – Be careful with the way you word your questions and statements. It should sound like its coming from a place of curiosity and interest, not criticism and judgment. I mean, as a Muslim and a feminist, I have zero issue with discussing how I feel about my religion and my political leanings. Really. I am more than happy to answer people’s questions and to talk to them about why I believe what I believe. But if you start shutting me down with insults, or start implying that I’m somehow illogical or hypocritical (“HAH! You can’t be a Muslim AND a feminist!”) then, uhm, all that conversation is going to produce for you is a swift kick in the shins.
  • Find something in common – When I was growing up one of the scariest realizations I had about religion was the fact that, in the eyes of someone who doesn’t believe in it, any religion can actually sound totally and wildly crazy. Knowing this made me immediately shut down pretty much every possible conversation I could have about religion because I always thought, “they probably think I’m insane!” We all need to get past this and focus instead on trying to find a shred of similarity between the opposing points of view. That usually makes it a whole lot easier to empathize with the other side and stop judging them.
  • Know when to back off – Look, no matter what you do, sometimes the situation will just inevitably begin to spiral out of control. In some cases people will always assume the defensive position when it comes to any kind of religious or political discussion. And, really, if you find yourself trying to convince someone that they’re wrong as opposed to simply listening to them, then you need to back off and check yourself. Odds are, when it comes to something as deeply meaningful to someone as religion or politics, you’re never really going to convince them that they’re wrong anyway. So basically, if the conversation starts to get more hostile and less fun, its just time to cut the cord on that sucker.

All my love!

Posted in Everywhere Else, Musings, News and tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
18 Sep 2012
10 Comments

Open Forum: How Do We Talk About Religion and Politics? (Without Starting WWIII)

Look, Ms. Manners has already forewarned us. The two subjects we are never supposed to so much as graze over in friendly, courteous conversations are religion and politics. Supposedly, these are the A-Bombs of all social conduct. Basically, with these little firecrackers, forget proceed with caution–do not proceed at all ever.

And yet, religion and politics are important things in people’s lives. In fact, to a lot of people, they can be the most important things. People have waged wars and built entire civilizations around religions and politics. One could argue that they still do. And yet we’re not supposed to so much as mention, let alone have a full conversation, about these monumental subjects?

But, you know, I get it. These subjects are touchy because, well, when someone believes in something so much and may even structure their entire life around it, how do you begin having a possibly opposing conversation with them about such an integral part of their identity? They’re bound to get offended, you’re bound to lose your cool, and, basically, the whole planet is bound to combust into one endlessly loud shouting match.

So, obviously, the only way to avoid staging a remake of Apocalypse Now in your living room (or in front of your nearest embassy) is, well… to avoid touching the whole thing altogether. Right?

But if any of you have been paying any attention to the news in the last couple of days, you’ll have undoubtedly heard of the low budget, borderline pornographic, disgustingly offensive American ‘movie’ mocking the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as well as the insane crap-storm of reactions that Muslims all around the world have been having to this film.

And now, all of a sudden, I feel myself compelled to bring this hairy can of worms into the room (which happens to have an elephant in it). I feel like now, more than ever, is a time when people need to start talking about talking about religion and politics.

Because when my religion (which I truly hold very near and dear to my heart) has been heinously assaulted and ridiculed for reasons that are possibly political and definitely asinine, all I can see is a mass wave of rightful anger being displaced in ways that are, at worst, murderous and, at best, fruitless.

I don’t see a lot of people trying to actually talk this thing out, and attempt to deal with a negative situation proactively.

I’m so baffled by this lack of dialogue we all seem to have with one another, that I’m now desperately trying to put together a how-to post about how we can talk about religion and politics without simultaneously exploding into a million pieces.

But, while I do that, I really wanna hear what you guys think of this. Do you guys think its possible for two opposing sides to have a civil and conducive conversation about religion and politics? Do you think there’s a way that these two opposing sides could ever work together to help zap out the negative, idiotic, offensive pests?

Please share your wisdom, you special snowflake, you!

All my love!

Posted in Everywhere Else, Musings, News, SAY WHAAA...! and tagged , , , , , , , ,
20 Aug 2012
2 Comments

A Reaction to the Reactions to Saher il-Lail

I’m probably inviting drama onto myself by saying this but, why in the world is everyone treating Saher il-Lail like a big, Iraq VS. Kuwait boxing match?

Look, I’ve watched the entire Saher il-Lail (Watan il-Nahar) series this Ramadan and I’m going to say this right off the bat: it was freaking phenomenal. Really, it was a work of great production value, promising writing, and included some very talented members among its cast. Sure, it had some technical slips (Oh my God! A PLASMA!), but, nitpicking aside, it was still a very worthy and admirable effort which was geared towards creating a real and positive change in the minds of its viewers.

And, from what I could figure, the change that Saher il-Lail was trying to accomplish was this: a sense of unity, pride, and respect for all those who have suffered the various forms of trauma and pain which the unjust and brutal Iraqi invasion of Kuwait had created in a countless number of souls who’s stories deserve to be reflected.

Saher il-Lail was not set out to demonize a whole nation or to make it okay for racists and bigots to start cropping up from under the ground. Anyone who uses Saher il-Lail as an excuse to fling insults and racist remarks against Iraqis or Kuwaitis or ANY nationality insults the noble effort behind which this television show was created. It’s not nationalism or pride, its freaking racism. And if you say its not, then you’ll be happy to know that you’ve just revealed your cards.

That said, I’m not belittling any of the war crimes which occurred upon the hands of the Iraqi military or the brutality that was used during the invasion. The reality is that, to whatever extent anyone would like to admit, the events that were portrayed in Saher il-Lail were inspired by similarly traumatizing experiences which real people went through during that horrible time. I’m not a historian nor was I really there at the time of the invasion (I was in Kuwait but I was one), but I know that not only is it useless to try and deny that certain atrocities really were committed, but that its also quite insulting to the history of Kuwait to do so.

Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis alike suffered greatly due to the ramifications of the unjust, aggressive, and, at times, murderous Iraqi invasion. This is simply a fact of history and there is no debating it.

But, let’s all get this straight: Saher il-Lail is not a documentary. Its a television show. A television show that had a lot of integrity, national respect, and honest work behind it. But still a television show.

That means that we need to take into consideration the fact that, like any network television show, stylistic drama is always involved. There needs to be a hook for audiences to attach themselves to so that they remain invested in the show for the entire month. In that respect, Saher il-Lail, like every other historic TV show to ever appear on television, is also concerned with purposefully creating empathy for certain characters and disdain for others. Every single television show under the sun is built with the same concept in mind. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, its the right way to make a successful and great TV show which is actually worth watching.

You’d think that this aspect of Saher il-Lail (that its not a documentary) would allow people to just enjoy it for what it is: a good television show that re-ignited a sense of unity and respect for national history.

Yet, for some insane reason, a whole lot of people are taking it as if it were a direct assault on all the Iraqi people or treating it like a piece of historical evidence. Serious news channels are having shouting debates about it; sending people out in the field to get counter-reactions from Iraqi people; and just basically taking everything that is beautiful out of it.

And now, all of a sudden, its just a big Iraq VS. Kuwait title match! I’ve seen nasty Youtube response videos, read hateful tweets, and just a whirlwind of racist backlash from BOTH sides and I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why.

It’s a television show. For some people it brings back bitter memories. For others its interesting and new. And for a whole other group, its just not their cup of tea. It’s not a groundbreaking, historical documentation which can be used as some kind of legitimate argument ammo about current or past politics. You can’t cite Saher il-Lail in a freaking history essay thesis.

Its simply a television show written from the creative perspective of a Kuwaiti family during a time of war which was, undeniably, difficult and traumatizing.

If you like it, keep watching and enjoy it. If you don’t, just turn the freaking channel.

All my love! (P.S. Eid Mubarak everyone!)

Posted in Beautiful, Kuwait, Musings, SAY WHAAA...!, Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , , ,

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