Literary Voices for Islam in the West

Literary Voices for Islam in the West
▪ 2006

      The Muslim population in Europe and North America is growing quickly, but even more significant is the degree of attention being paid to this very articulate minority. More than ever before, Westerners and Easterners are struggling to understand one another and explain themselves through their writings. An especially fertile topic for Muslim writers has been the pressures on Muslim women living in Western society.

      When Sudanese author Leila Aboulela published The Translator (1999), it was hailed in the Muslim News as “the first halal novel written in English.” (Ḥalāl [“permissible”] is the opposite of ḥarām [“forbidden”].) The Islamic message in the novel and in Aboulela's collection of short stories, Coloured Lights (2001), was subtle, however, compared with her latest novel, Minaret (2005). For this work Aboulela adopts an openly didactic approach, and the book abounds in information about Islamic religious practices. Her message is clearly that salvation is to be found in Islam. Herself a veiled woman, Aboulela studied in London and lived for a decade in Scotland; she probably experienced many of the misconceptions described in her novel. Najwa, the protagonist, is slowly transformed from a modern Sudanese university student into a devout Muslim who interacts with her “sisters” at the mosque and speaks their devotional language. Readers learn in detail the various ways to wear the veil and the importance of reading the Qurʾan and seeking God's help and protection. One wonders if the novel was not written in reaction to the banning in recent years of the public display of religious symbols in France and elsewhere in Europe. Aboulela appears to be aligning herself with French revisionist and Muslim convert Roger Garaudy's call for an “Islamization of modernity” rather than a “modernization of Islam.”

      The virtue of the veiled woman that Aboulela portrays, however, is questioned by Diana Abu-Jaber, an Arab American writer, in Crescent (2003). Rana, a veiled Muslim student in the U.S., relates her numerous love affairs and affirms her ability to seduce any man she wants. She explains her veiling by saying simply, “This reminds me that I belong to myself. And to God.” If Islam represents an identity for Aboulela's protagonist Najwa, Francophone Algerian author Assia Djebar approaches her faith from a cultural angle. Her motivation to speak out during the tragic events in her homeland in the 1990s emanated from a desire “to defend Algerian culture, which appeared threatened.”

      Arab writers have been generally eager to inform the West about their true selves. The ethnographic novels of the mid-20th century were followed by more sophisticated works revealing various aspects of Arab-Islamic societies. Despite her staunch rejection of her country's customs and religion, for example, Algerian Malika Mokaddem clearly values many of the desert traditions she describes in Mes hommes (2005).

      A “dialogue of civilizations”—to use the phrase of Jamal M. Ibrahim, Sudanese ambassador in London—is under way. A lively discussion of the religious and cultural content of Islam has now been brought to Europe and the Americas and is being conducted by writers in Western languages as well as in Arabic.

Aida A. Bamia

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • The Satanic Verses controversy — refers to the controversy surrounding Salman Rushdie s novel The Satanic Verses . In particular it involves the novel s alleged blasphemy or unbelief; the 1989 fatwa issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie; and the… …   Wikipedia

  • literature — /lit euhr euh cheuhr, choor , li treuh /, n. 1. writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays. 2.… …   Universalium

  • HISTORICAL SURVEY: THE STATE AND ITS ANTECEDENTS (1880–2006) — Introduction It took the new Jewish nation about 70 years to emerge as the State of Israel. The immediate stimulus that initiated the modern return to Zion was the disappointment, in the last quarter of the 19th century, of the expectation that… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Kazi Nazrul Islam — in 1920 Born 24 May 1899(1899 05 24) Churulia, Asansol, Burdwan District, Bengal, British India Died …   Wikipedia

  • Anarchism in the United States — Part of the Politics series on Anarchism …   Wikipedia

  • Beijing 2008 Olympic Games: Mount Olympus Meets the Middle Kingdom — Introduction officially  Games of the XXIX Olympiad        The Games of the XXIX Olympiad, involving some 200 Olympic committees and as many as 13,000 accredited athletes competing in 28 different sports, were auspiciously scheduled to begin at 8 …   Universalium

  • France in the Middle Ages — Kingdom of France Royaume de France ←   …   Wikipedia

  • Women in the workforce — Part of a series on Women in Society …   Wikipedia

  • Southeast Asian arts — Literary, performing, and visual arts of Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. The classical literatures of Southeast Asia can be divided into three major regions: the Sanskrit region of… …   Universalium

  • Criticism of Islamism — For criticism of the religion of Islam, see Criticism of Islam. Part of the Politics series on Islamism …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”