Islam is seen as an encompassing identity, not just a belief set. Shadid gives its aims: "a revival of the umma, adoption of sharia, social and economic development and trepidation about the West's cultural, economic and political influence" (Shadid168). It can bring about the end of war, famine, and poverty independent of the West. The key is that the system relies on interpretation of Islam through the Qur'an and traditional law. It only secondarily references the model of Muhammad when it talks about how the social community is built. Muhammad's example in Mecca and Medina are cited for this (Shadid 171). At the same time, political power usurped by the elite came through a critique of the religious scholars and their legitimacy. Shadid writes, "The result is a fragmentation of authority and, at another level, the democratization of the faith as more people decide the meaning of Islam for themselves" (Shadid 173).
What actually happened, however, was a top-down imposition of the leadership's will using repressive tactics. Amongst the population, the government was perceived as intolerant. The originally tolerant Islam of Sudan turned into extremist force that alienated its own people and produced student opposition. According to Shadid, the failure was not Islam, since the devout people desired that religion shape their lives. Rather, the failure was in cultural imposition and the government's dictatorial approach. Only one view of Islam was allowed. He says, "The idea behind the vision was that only one Islam held the key to God, that only one Islam was proper and correct" (Shadid 184). This example shows how ideology and authoritarian power fails despite a history of tolerance, diversity, and rights, when it tries to monopolize God and works out of limited images of the Prophet. It demonstrates further that Islamic practice and belief are in dynamic interaction within a particular context from which it cannot be separated.
Another example of the cultural formation of Islam that has little to do with Muhammad is Iranian discourse on its diaspora citizens. The case of speech in Iran about its own exiles dispersed in the West shows the complexity of the culture-religion interaction. According to Shahidian, within Iran Muslims abroad are represented in a way that reflects dominant governmental values such as East vs. West, nationalism, and the correct gender relations. The diaspora is given no voice. Opposition is censored. Those of the diaspora are portrayed as alienated in a corrupting foreign place. The issues of class and gender are emphasized without reference to nationality, religion, age or sexual orientation (Shahidian 100). The entire point of this discourse is to show the West as a mirage where exile is dysfunctional, and to preserve the notion of Iranian cultural purity with respect to women's roles over against the corrupting influence of the West. In other words, it wants to discredit exiles, persuade people to stay in Iran, convince people to repatriate, and show migration as a danger to family, women, and nation (Shahidian 101). Expatriates are characterized as helpless and homeless. The opportunities given by migration are downplayed or ignored. The reasons for migration are not treated, like political repression and excessive governmental and family pressure as frustrating and alienating. Shahidian says, "The nuances of diasporic lives are not visible in the mirror that is supposed to reflect us. This is a mirror that obfuscates factors leading to diaspora, as well as the changes in the diasporas' conception of 'home', 'hostland' and 'diasporic life'." (Shahidian 104)
The Iran of many exiles is not nostalgic or euphoric. Shahidian says, "The 'Islamic kindness' that most exiles experienced included daily harassment, purges, persecution, imprisonment, torture and mass executions, memories vividly recorded in diasporic accounts of their lives" (Shahidian 105). The exiles see suppressive violence and gender domination as integral to an Islamic state. The point is that in Iran's contemporary government, apart from images of Muhammad, false images of exiles and women are manufactured that do not connect with diasporic recollections. Patriarchal representations of expatriate women hold women responsible for destroying family life. Exiles are deemed deceived by Western values and pursuing baseless dreams: "Life in the West is presented as a mirage, an illusory paradise, particularly detrimental to family life and 'female virtues'" (Shahidian 111). This whole tension of Iranian insiders and Iranian exiles signifies how important cultural and social contexts influence religious ideas and practice. There is a kind of complex mutual interpenetration between issues of religion, morality, gender, and nationality that far override the personality of Muhammad and point more...
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