Progressive Islam – A Rose by Any Name? American Soft Power in the War for the Hearts and Minds of Muslims

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/reorient.4.1.0078
• Published date: 01 October 2018
• Date: 01 October 2018
• Pages: 78-106
• Author: Farid Esack
• Subject Matter: Islamic liberation theology,Progressive Muslims,Progressive Islam,American Islam,critical Muslim,decoloniality,US empire,Liberal Islam,Moderate Muslims

www.plutojournals.com/reorient

University of Johannesburg, South Africa

PROGRESSIVE ISLAM – A ROSE BY

ANY NAME? AMERICAN SOFT POWER

IN THE WAR FOR THE HEARTS AND

MINDS OF MUSLIMS

Farid Esack

Abstract: The aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States brought

into sharp relief the leading role of that country in shaping contemporary Muslim dis-

courses to create discursive urgencies that meet its ideological needs. Reflections on a

short but very intense battle for the term “Progressive Islam” between a small group

of international activists in the Network of Progressive Muslims (NPM), on one hand,

and the US organization, Progressive Muslims of North America (PMUNA), on the other,

is one manifestation of how this battle for the hearts and minds of Muslims as part

of a larger ideological contestation has played out. This article examines the rupture

between the two claimants to the term “Progressive Islam” within the context of (a) the

varying historical usages of the term, (b) the need for Muslims to be dealing with intra-

religious matters, and (c) the instrumentalization of such reform by the US-led empire

as part of an uncritical liberal Muslim response that views Traditional and Fundamen-

talist expressions of Islam as their primary contradiction rather than Global North-

driven imperialism and neo-colonial hegemony. The article argues that in the case of

the United States, while recognizing the historicity of all expressions of religions, the

projecting of rethinking and reconstructing religious tradition should not be under-

taken as an extension of an externally driven “religion-building project” but instead by

believers who both own Islam and share their own complicity as citizens of the empire.

Keywords: Islamic liberation theology, Progressive Muslims, Progressive Islam, Ameri-

can Islam, critical Muslim, decoloniality, US empire, Liberal Islam, Moderate Muslims

There are three main components of the war of terrorism; one is hunting down

the terrorists, and it involves law enforcement, intelligence sharing, and

crackdowns on the sources of funding. It also means confronting states that

sponsor terrorism. The second component is homeland security. And the third

one is the battle of ideas, which is in the first instance a civil war within the

Muslim world between moderates and extremists. (US Government Agent

speaking at a conference on Sufism. Nixon Center Report)

PROGRESSIVE ISLAM – A ROSE BY ANY NAME? 79

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Brother, if only we American Muslims can unite and get our act together, then we

can provide guidance and leadership to the entire Muslim ummah. (An African

American Muslim woman speaking to me a few days after the attack on New York

and the Pentagon in 2001)

Introduction

The attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001 (herein-

after “9/11”) did not only center Islam in the Western imagination but also trans-

ported it to the urban centers of power in the West. By changing the spatial

dimensions of the narrative, 9/11 brought this “volatile” and “militant” entity

(Islam) irrevocably into the Western world. The power wielded by the Western

media, military, and academy in the post-9/11 War on Terror era, particularly in

the United States, not only meant increased attention to Islam and greater visibility

to Muslims but also hitherto unprecedented opportunities to reshape the contours

of the Islamic faith globally. Of course, it goes without saying that understandings

of faith and religion are continuously being reformulated – this is the case with

anything connected to humans as historical beings. The same applies to the need

for such changes, according to our ever-increasing awareness of the perpetual

transmutations and varying guises of injustice. Historically, politically and pro-

phetically speaking, the question thus is not simply “to change or not?” but in

response to which specific impulses and pressures; that is, how to change from the

impulses of the margins and undersides of society – whether they be class, race,

gender, sexual orientation, ability, and so on – in response to the pressures of the

powerful.1

In the United States, the aftermath of 9/11 presented an opportunity for the

country and its allies to re-form Islam by instrumentalizing the entirely legiti-

mate grievances among many Muslims and/or others living in majority Muslim

states, including the social oppression suffered by Dalit Muslims in India,

Ahmadi Muslims and Punjabi (read “darker skinned”) Christians in Pakistan,

gender-based violence, and discrimination against Muslim lesbian, gay, bisex-

ual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons. While many Muslim activists and

academics were already working in these areas, this article reflects the unmoor-

ing of these issues from their earlier intra-Muslim basis to their reframing and

reprioritization as a response to the post-9/11 urgencies and demands of the

US empire.

Wittgenstein speaks about language being a “labyrinth of paths; you approach

from one side and know your way about; you approach the same place from

another side and no longer know your way about” (2001: 2). In working on this

article, I became aware of how the same may apply to a single word. Coming from