The journey begins ... or continues ... articulating the rollercoaster that is my life

[mumstheword]

I have tried to read Quran scripture.
I'm not saying every Moslem is an extremist. In fact, in the past there has been eras of great harmony between Islamists and Christians and in many instances, there are no problems. However I can still have a preference for feminists coming.out of Islam, that is my preogerative. It is about the written law, and not individuals.
I don't hold prejudices about groups or individuals. It's about what's written and defended and congruence between values within political factions, not picking on Islam, per say. I've.met lovely, non-political Moslems too. Obviously they arent creating any problems. I'm not right wing.

 

[mumstheword]

Yes and Christianity get's hounded and criticised for it's hypocrisy and that's a trendy thing to do, but rarely get's acknowledged for it's virtues.
So to every argument there is a valid counter argument.
It is a strawman argument to pit Christianity against Islam, in this instance.
I agree political extremists and hypocrites of every type and religion are annoying and potentially damaging and destructiveness.

 

[mumstheword]

In general, I am starting to detest talking about politics in general.
I don't trust what media outlets write or say on news and such.
I hate the divisiveness and manipulation and misinformation and polarization of it all.
I already don't watch television.
I don't read newspapers and I'm starting to hate YouTube.
It's ok for special interests, in some ways, I guess. But the Algorithms and limited choices offered are really starting to shit me.
I want to hide and wait until the world makes sense again.
I want to grow things and practise music again.
I want to read a lot of books, meditate, exercise, make love, cook, finish my degree.
Educate people about what it's like to see the world from the perspective of being a female Aspie.
We are out of sinc with the rest of the world.
We study a lot.
We are highly logical and rampantly skewed, by virtue of processing in an Aspie fashion.
We. can. not. keep. up.
We (can) have exceptional abilities in ways that we can struggle to get employment in, or communicate, due to our social/emotional neurodiversity.
We lack social confidence, like HUGELY!
We are often good at faking "normal" but it's so EXHAUSTING and it feels fake and we hate any kind of lying and pretentiousness and fakeness.
So yeah, solitude, special interests, bamboozlement at how neurotypical females socially operate and how people can keep up with social norm type stuff. Easily sensory overloaded.
It's like always watching from the outside, not knowing the language and the social rules of engagement.
Being a constant outsider or feeling like a total faker, and hating it.

 

[Swift]

Yeah speaking as someone with many Muslim friends who reads many Muslim writers and has actually read Al Qu'ran and as much info as I can get my hands on, semi-fluent in written Arabic, and also a hardcore f*cking queer feminist...... It's the religion that is literally the most compatible with my hardcore f*cking queer feminism. And I mean that in all seriousness.

What does "Islam" mean exactly? It's not a monolith and the 1.3 billion people who identify as Muslims aren't all anti-feminist.

And.... As much as I clearly have a problem with most feminist rhetoric and some feminists in particular, I still identify as a feminist.

It's fine to prefer ex-Muslim feminists :) I totally get you. But there's some rad Muslim feminists and some rad commentary on it as well that you maybe would be interested in.

I'll skip the political debate/theological lecture, but it wouldn't sit right with me not saying something.

 

[mumstheword]

Yeah speaking as someone with many Muslim friends who reads many Muslim writers and has actually read Al Qu'ran and as much info as I can get my hands on, semi-fluent in written Arabic, and also a hardcore f*cking queer feminist...... It's the religion that is literally the most compatible with my hardcore f*cking queer feminism. And I mean that in all seriousness.

What does "Islam" mean exactly? It's not a monolith and the 1.3 billion people who identify as Muslims aren't all anti-feminist.

And.... As much as I clearly have a problem with most feminist rhetoric and some feminists in particular, I still identify as a feminist.

It's fine to prefer ex-Muslim feminists :) I totally get you. But there's some rad Muslim feminists and some rad commentary on it as well that you maybe would be interested in.

I'll skip the political debate/theological lecture, but it wouldn't sit right with me not saying something.

I actually would be really interested in what Muslim feminists have to say, I'm totally serious.
That was really something I meant, not to come across all "anti-Islam" but actually wanting to listen and learn and hear what it is that Islamic feminists have to say because they interest me.

I Love, love love Rumi poetry, so I know the Sufi perspective is hugely fascinating to me. I've also been involved with the Baha'i movement and the ideology is very in alignment with my own, in many ways.

Thanks Swift. If you can point me in the direction of any that I can access, I'd be very grateful.

I'm quite Shamanic in my worldview, and so the Islamic take on "Jinns" is very interesting to me.
I kind of study religion from the more mystical, historical and psychological and anthropological perspectives than adhering to any strict dogma, myself. I like Jungian type psychology, paranormal phenomenon and the science of "Enlightenment" (the eastern definition as opposed to the western scientific enlightenment, although, obviously I'm influenced by scientific empiricism and employ scientific methodology in my studies as well).
I grew up very easternised (Buddhist and Hindu influenced) and and those perspectives will never not be part of my core worldview.

 

[Swift]

No worries.

Islamic feminism is worth a Google from a mystical/spiritualist perspective :)
Sufi Soul: The Mystic Music of Islam is quite good as a doco on Netflix if you're into the Sufi thing.

Khalil Gibran's "The Prophet", while not super strictly Islam is amazing if you like Rumi.

If you want to know about Muslim women's rights, ask Muslim women | Susan Carland

Is written by someone who did a doctoral thesis.

Muslim feminism beyond driving

Rafia Zakara is an awesome correspondent for Al Jazeera, who run an awesome Women's Rights in the Middle East/Maghreb region blog.

Susan Bassnet's work on the language of translation from Arabic to English - particularly "Translating Terror", is about the politics of translating certain words to archaic English meanings. Hands down probably The Most I've ever learnt from one article.

Arundhati Roy, although not a Muslim, writes awesome stuff about Indian politics. I literally own all her books and I reckon she's amazing.

Dr Susan Carland has some interesting, if paternalistic views.

Edward Said's work on Orientalism, which I think Juso mentioned, is really cool as well.

Anyway, total nerd about this stuff.

 

[mumstheword]

Also, I really like the idea of a "Jihad" being one's own spiritual struggle towards the light of "God/Goddess" " Allah" "The Great Mystery", "Love" "Truth" whatever you want to call the beautious and ineffable Presence and Majesty that Is.

 

[somerandomguy]

I mean, if I was a religious person ... Islam would probably be the way to go. It's the only monotheistic religion out of all of the important ones. (Christians actually worship three gods, but don't tell them that, they get upset. Shh).

Every religion has been perverted by extremists. Islam has been particularly poisoned in the modern day. But once upon a time, Islam was a humanistic and progressive religion. Muslims "saved" the Western world, if you want to look at it from an old-fashioned and unfashionable viewpoint.

 

[mumstheword]

I

No worries.

Islamic feminism is worth a Google from a mystical/spiritualist perspective :)
Sufi Soul: The Mystic Music of Islam is quite good as a doco on Netflix if you're into the Sufi thing.

Khalil Gibran's "The Prophet", while not super strictly Islam is amazing if you like Rumi.

If you want to know about Muslim women's rights, ask Muslim women | Susan Carland

Is written by someone who did a doctoral thesis.

Muslim feminism beyond driving

Rafia Zakara is an awesome correspondent for Al Jazeera, who run an awesome Women's Rights in the Middle East/Maghreb region blog.

Susan Bassnet's work on the language of translation from Arabic to English - particularly "Translating Terror", is about the politics of translating certain words to archaic English meanings. Hands down probably The Most I've ever learnt from one article.

Arundhati Roy, although not a Muslim, writes awesome stuff about Indian politics. I literally own all her books and I reckon she's amazing.

Dr Susan Carland has some interesting, if paternalistic views.

Edward Said's work on Orientalism, which I think Juso mentioned, is really cool as well.

Anyway, total nerd about this stuff.

Have looked into Edward's Said's stuff, when I was studying Cultural theory at uni. .
I grew up in Ashrams and(a) Buddhist community, in the bush and at hippy festivals and communes so I've never been one of these "Westerners" looking in on the "East" . I truly am a product of Australasia. I remember past lives and was a Indian Yogini in one, where I ran away from my rich, authoritarian husband and went to live in Himalayan caves and taught the Science and arts of Yoga (which means Union and, as you probably know is not limited to twisty poses and mudras) to orphan children.
I used to own the complete works of Kahil Gibran but someone "borrowed" (stole) it off me, I really need to purchase it again. His writing is lovely. :)
Arundhati Roy sounds familiar, I think I've come across her somewhere and I liked her work.
Haven't heard of the other's, but will check them out :) looks interesting. Thanks @Swift. :):):):):hug::hug::hug:

 

[mumstheword]

I mean, if I was a religious person ... Islam would probably be the way to go. It's the only monotheistic religion out of all of the important ones. (Christians actually worship three gods, but don't tell them that, they get upset. Shh).

Every religion has been perverted by extremists. Islam has been particularly poisoned in the modern day. But once upon a time, Islam was a humanistic and progressive religion. Muslims "saved" the Western world, if you want to look at it from an old-fashioned and unfashionable viewpoint.

Enlightened Christians and Muslims used to teach each other's children to read and brought great depth and richness to each other's faith, back in the day. I have a book about these great faiths in the middle ages. I've only read a bit of it, must get back to it. I'll be able to share more when I read more :-).

 

[littleoc]

Muhammad and Jesus were both cool people, according to history. I like hearing the stories.

I didn’t want to rant at you, though. I am very prone to ranting. I get excited :P

@mumstheword, you fit in. Don’t feel too exhausted. If you tried, then you do. :)

 

[Juso]

Hey mums, I was not saying you are right wing! I was just trying to answer your questions. ?

western feminists that defend Islam, I absolutely fail to see the congruence of that perspective.
Same with "Liberals" that defend Islam and yet say they are also LGBTQ etc, etc Allies, how does that work?

I wanted to show you how you can defend Islam and at the same time defend womens and LGBTQ rights. I tried to bring across that the Islam ist not against those things, that it is only misinformation and power in the wrong hands that caused all of this mess.

I have tried to read Quran scripture.

Me too! I do think that to really understand the Quran you have to be able to speak arabic. At least that is what I have been told by people who have read it in its original language.

However I can still have a preference for feminists coming.out of Islam, that is my preogerative. It is about the written law, and not individuals.

Of course you can have that preference! This was not an attack on you. The writtten law, the sharia, has barely anything to do with Islam/the Quran itself, that was what I was trying to explain.

I actually would be really interested in what Muslim feminists have to say, I'm totally serious.

That is why I gave you the link to that Ted Talk, the "lecturer" is a muslim feminist. ? It was the first example I was thinking of, but there is so much more to discover! Although I think the most valuable 'research' I have done consisted of just talking and listening to muslim people.
Hugs to you?