During my studies, I was taught that being an "arabist" does not necessarily mean to be an "islamist".
Later on, I learnt to carefully avoid the second definition, because it carries a political colour in the Arab world. In short, an islamist is one supporting political Islam: Shari'a, hijab, segregation....the Law of God as it was expressed and made eternal by Quran.
But,for me, the word "islamist", meant just a western scholar of Islamic studies, one whom S.Eisenstadt describes as "a lover whose love can be very perilious and can lead him to very far and weird places in order to follow the beloved". This just what I did in my university years: Yemen,niqabs, stories of burning passion and redemption, and in the end Egypt, revolutions, and the dream of a life THERE. All of this, of course, always fighting against the prejudices of the world and the fears of your own soul.
"Arabist" was totally another matter. Even most people still ignore what an arabist is or does (but many imagine him as a time waster, jobless traveller), this word can refer to both a lover of the Arab culture and to a person studying or mastering the Arabic language and culture. Of course, doing this implies travelling and passion as well, but I could never really be an JUST an arabist.According to me, Arabic is an essential tool to approach the Islamic culture and to understand it but, at the same time, I find it extremily unsatisfactory to speak good Arabic without a knowledge of Islam, as you will be missing the inner heart of what you are articulating and will never fully possess it. Besides, the arabist tends to be quite neutral about the hottest issues concerning the world he deals with: Palestine, political unrest, neo-colonialism... .
So, am I an Islamist or an Arabist? The question is far from being extensively answered, but I bet I am closer to the later, even I don't really trust etiquettes.
Being an islamist today means, in my vision, not only to study Islam (and political Islam, in my case) but to EDUCATE people about Islam: a real mission! This education should be both for Muslims and Westerns, as the former often forgot their own roots and dwell with fundamentalism, thinking it IS Islam. The later seldom have a real information about the islamic world and can't tell the difference between Jihad and terrorism, or even between an Iranian and an Arab.
Other than that, the scholar of Islam should act as a bridge between two worls that resemble each other more than they can think, even if they cannot appreciate the mutual differences.All of this can't obviously happen if I just know the language and I have a scarce knowlege of the universe it arose in.
Because of all these reasons, I will not be ashamed from now on to call myself an "islamist"(even I am actually both), even I am going to have a hard time in an Arab context to make people understanbd I am not a convert!
Later on, I learnt to carefully avoid the second definition, because it carries a political colour in the Arab world. In short, an islamist is one supporting political Islam: Shari'a, hijab, segregation....the Law of God as it was expressed and made eternal by Quran.
But,for me, the word "islamist", meant just a western scholar of Islamic studies, one whom S.Eisenstadt describes as "a lover whose love can be very perilious and can lead him to very far and weird places in order to follow the beloved". This just what I did in my university years: Yemen,niqabs, stories of burning passion and redemption, and in the end Egypt, revolutions, and the dream of a life THERE. All of this, of course, always fighting against the prejudices of the world and the fears of your own soul.
"Arabist" was totally another matter. Even most people still ignore what an arabist is or does (but many imagine him as a time waster, jobless traveller), this word can refer to both a lover of the Arab culture and to a person studying or mastering the Arabic language and culture. Of course, doing this implies travelling and passion as well, but I could never really be an JUST an arabist.According to me, Arabic is an essential tool to approach the Islamic culture and to understand it but, at the same time, I find it extremily unsatisfactory to speak good Arabic without a knowledge of Islam, as you will be missing the inner heart of what you are articulating and will never fully possess it. Besides, the arabist tends to be quite neutral about the hottest issues concerning the world he deals with: Palestine, political unrest, neo-colonialism... .
So, am I an Islamist or an Arabist? The question is far from being extensively answered, but I bet I am closer to the later, even I don't really trust etiquettes.
Being an islamist today means, in my vision, not only to study Islam (and political Islam, in my case) but to EDUCATE people about Islam: a real mission! This education should be both for Muslims and Westerns, as the former often forgot their own roots and dwell with fundamentalism, thinking it IS Islam. The later seldom have a real information about the islamic world and can't tell the difference between Jihad and terrorism, or even between an Iranian and an Arab.
Other than that, the scholar of Islam should act as a bridge between two worls that resemble each other more than they can think, even if they cannot appreciate the mutual differences.All of this can't obviously happen if I just know the language and I have a scarce knowlege of the universe it arose in.
Because of all these reasons, I will not be ashamed from now on to call myself an "islamist"(even I am actually both), even I am going to have a hard time in an Arab context to make people understanbd I am not a convert!
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento