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Muslim Voices Indiana University

Islam and Modern Challenges by Flamur Vehapi

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The Need to Deconstruct the Dominant Narratives about Islam and Muslims

“Bahar-bie” by jmv licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Nowadays, many Orientalists, among others, speak of Islam as if it began in the late 1970s with the Iranian Revolution or in the 1990s with the rise of certain radical groups in some parts of the Muslim world, or as is now the case with some conflicts in the Middle East. Islam is being framed and portrayed in such a way that many Westerners today see it as something foreign and incompatible with the West, thus having nothing to offer to the rest of the world. As a result of these imposed misconceptions, the underlying assumption has become that Muslims live in a stagnant world “and pre-modern tradition that has failed to respond to the challenges of modernity; essential values, such as progress, science, reason, freedom, and equality, have not yet set in.”  (more…)

Farewell to Kabul: Afghanistan after the Withdrawal by Dr. Carter Malkasian (Naval Postgraduate School) by Ali Alsmadi

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Dr. Carter Malkasian

In light of the U.S withdrawal from Afghanistan and the aftermath of a war that lasted two decades, Dr. Carter Malkasian presented on March 3, 2022, a talk about the US’s recent experience in Afghanistan and the lessons drawn from that experience. Dr. Malkasian also discussed his recent book The American War in Afghanistan: A History, published by Oxford UP, 2021. The lecture took place at Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. Among the attendees were Indiana University Ex-President Michael McRobbie, former Indian ambassador Rakesh Sood, a group of Indiana University distinguished professors, and many graduate students. (more…)

Tajikistan. Roof of the World by Cathy Raymond

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Buzkashi Band

This is an excerpt from a story I wrote about hiking in Badakhshan, the mountainous autonomous region of Tajikistan, and my experiences as a Fulbright Scholar in 2018. The full story is published in the Canadian adventure magazine Outpost: 

The air is cool, and I tighten the cords on my backpack and head into the village toward the steep seven-kilometre hike to the top of the mountain in front of me. My goal this morning is to reach the ancient Yamchun Fortress, a third-century BC outpost along the Silk Road, which served the dual purposes of controlling the flow of goods across this region and protecting the area from foreign invaders.

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The Religion of LOVE: Mulla Jaziri’s Meta religious and Feminine perspective on GOD’s Unity by Dr. İbrahim Bor

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Melayê Cizîrî | 📷 Melayê Cizîrî Facebook Page

Mulla Jaziri was  a Kurdish Mystic, Poem, and Philosopher. He weaved his Sufi experience on Love and Beauty to reveal the manifestation of Being (God) by using the multiple symbols and metaphors in the Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish.

The following  couplet reveals how the poet’s mystical thought has profound roots in love: 

“The Almighty writes the Love for our destiny from the eternal when sharing the fortunes” (Diwan, Terci-i Bend, 1/5; p.188) 

(more…)

Islam and Uyghurs by Mike Krautkramer

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In 1929, a young Swedish librarian arrived in the Silk Road city of Kashgar. He was there to study a language and a people at the time both called “Turki,” which are now generally referred to as Uyghur. The librarian, Gunnar Jarring, would recount some decades later in his Return to Kashgar (Durham: Duke University Press, 1986) the vibrant and lively city, in which the local Turki population went about their daily business in ways that were inextricably intertwined with Islam. He does not use those exact words, but it is very clear from both his account and many of the texts he brought back to Sweden, that Turki and Islamic culture were inextricably intertwined to the point that one could not talk, or even think, about one of them without running headlong into the other. The version of  Islam that Jarring describes was not one of highly-educated mollas trained in one of the great centers of Islamic learning (though they certainly existed, too) but one of people, and more precisely one of people going about their daily lives.  (more…)

An Interview with Ahmad Hayaniz

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Audria Hettinger
Shems al-Ubaidi

Music often gives expression to human experiences that are difficult to communicate. In times of war and national crises, artists harness music as a tool for community empowerment and healing. With this starting point, fifth-year Arabic students at Indiana University spent the fall semester looking at how the role of music takes form during periods of civil wars in the Middle East and North African regions. Arabic Students Shems Al-Ubaidi and Audria Hettinger got to have a conversation with Ahmed Hayani, a musician from Aleppo well known for his Nasheed renditions. The Nasheed is a poetic tradition prevalent in the Muslim world that relies on vocal recitation to convey a lesson or a message to its audience. Ahmed has used this art form to convey themes of hope and resilience to his audience. (more…)

Fieldwork in Palestine…. by Lydia Zakel

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Lydia Zakel at the Dome of the Rock

I would like to preface this post by saying a few things. The first is that this story is taken from my fieldwork in Palestine and is solely my own point of view and experience. I’ve also changed people’s names so that they cannot be identified. Finally, I know this story can be seen as super privileged as so many Palestinians do not have the freedom of movement in the West Bank. Even in Bethlehem where I conducted my fieldwork, only 6 kilometers away from Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, Palestinians in Bethlehem are unable to travel and visit these holy sites and city. Being able to go and see it with my American passport was such a privilege. The people I went with were Pakistani, Egyptian, and diasporic Palestinians who had passports that allowed them to travel to Jerusalem with me. This story is my experience and only my experience is taken as two excerpts from my fieldnotes.

(more…)

Islamophobia through the eyes of a young Iraqi by Rose Hattab

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“Islamophobia” by VvVAmobile via CreativeCommons.org / Andres Lombana via Flickr. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

As a first-generation Muslim and Arab woman living in post-9/11 United States, some of the mainstream discourse in America has been consistently packed with Islamophobic stereotypes and rhetoric. It is not a surprise that ever since the tragedy of 9/11, hate crimes towards Muslims and Middle Easterners in the United States have risen based on negative views from the media or stereotypes that have circulated. In the past years, many incidents have occurred towards Muslims, some even fatal and leading to the deaths of these innocent people. It has, unfortunately, been normalized to justify these horrendous actions as one committed because of hate towards someone’s beliefs or their appearance. The previous government administration alone appealed to much of the American public using this Islamophobic discourse that was guised under Donald Trump’s executive order of the Muslim ban in 2017.  (more…)

Dena El Saffar on her listening practices by Ezgi Benli

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Dena Al Saffar

“To really have the spirit of the Middle Eastern music, you shouldn’t be looking at a piece of paper, you know, you should be looking at each other or closing your eyes or looking at your instrument.”

Right before the pandemic, Dena and I were practicing for an upcoming Turkish concert. After our rehearsals, I often hang around and find myself in an engaging conversation with Dena. It was one of those days, Dena and I began to talk about Middle Eastern Ensembles, the differences between Western musical practices, and the practice of oral transmission, also known as meşk.  (more…)

A Story from Muslim Indonesia By Puji Mudiana

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A Masjid in Rural Central Java
Masjid in a rural area in Central Java

Indonesia is the largest archipelagic country on the globe, laid along the equator in Southeast Asia. The culture is diverse, with over 300 ethnic groups and hundreds of traditional languages. Religious values abundantly influence our lives in Indonesia. We are practicing our beliefs, doing the services as manifestations of our faith regardless of our religion. Officially, we have the Ministry of Religious Affairs responsible for taking care of the six different beliefs, including Islam, Christian, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.  We observe the holidays of those religions with countless rites and festivals. According to the National Education Law, our education aims to “develop learners’ potentials so that they become persons …. who are faithful and pious to one and only God.” The curriculum includes several hours of religious courses to be delivered in the classrooms from grade schools to higher education to achieve that goal. There, we both institutionalize and celebrate our beliefs.  (more…)

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