Anarcha-Islam: To Struggle Against Our Inner Fascisms / Mohamed Abdou
Dr. Mohamed Abdou joins me to discuss Islam and Anarchism: Relationships and Resonances, published this year by Pluto Press.
What are the relationships and resonances between anarchism and Islam? Anarchism, through its Western manifestation, claims "no gods, no masters" as fundamental to anti-authoritarianism, both in theory and practice. Through that lens, what "relationships and resonances" then exist between anarchism and a religious and spiritual system such as Islam? And, ultimately, what can self-identified anarchists in predominately non-Muslim majority Western nations, and practitioners of Islam the world-over, learn from one another?
Piercing through Orientalist, Islamophobic stereotypes of the "Muslim" in the Western imaginary, even in spaces that claim to be opposed to such shallow, two-dimensional characterizations, is crucial in forging solidarities against the common enemies of liberation and social justice: heteropatriarchy, authoritarianism, fascism, capitalism, colonialism. In reading Islam and Anarchism, several key truths become abundantly clear: Islam is not a monolith, and was never intended to be; Islam contains, as Dr. Abdou describes it, "micro (and macro) anti-authoritarian commitments" — ethics of disagreement, hospitality, and community making; Islam, in practice, is incongruitous with modern nation-states — in both its liberal-democratic and dictatorial forms. With these understandings, Dr. Abdou lays critiques of the narrow frames self-described anarchists operate within, but also toward Muslims and the contradictory relationship they have with national identities within their various geographical and historical contexts.
BIO:
Dr. Mohamed Abdou graduated from Queen’s University with a Doctorate in Cultural Studies and holds an BAH/MA in Sociology. He is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University’s Einaudi Center’s Racial Justice Program and is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the American University of Cairo. He is also an interdisciplinary scholar of Indigenous, Black, critical race, and Islamic studies, as well as anti-racist feminist, gender, sexuality, women, decolonial and post-colonial studies with extensive fieldwork experience in the Middle East-North Africa and Turtle Island. He is a self-identifying Muslim anarchist and diasporic settler of color living on Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ, Anishinaabe-Haudenosaunee territory. He teaches (under) graduate courses on Settler-colonialism, Anti-Colonialism, and Anti-Imperialism, Intimacy, Family & Kinships, North African, Islamic, BIPOC and radical newest social movements, as well as on Research Methodologies, the Global Political Economy of Development, (Pre-) Modern/Classical and Poststructuralist Political Philosophy and Social Theory at the American University of Cairo, as well as Cornell and Queen’s University.
Episode Notes:
Purchase a copy of Islam and Anarchism at Bookshop or directly from Pluto Press.
Read a summary of Islam and Anarchism at Political Theology.
Learn more about Dr. Abdou and his work at his website.
Follow him on Twitter @minuetinGmajor
The music featured is by Waxie.
