I will taking a blogging hiatus to journey out to the Bay Area for my wedding this winter break. Not to fear, the dynamic duo of Muslim blogging will be returning to an Internet near you. But in the interim, we ask you to keep us in your thoughts, supplications and prayers.

al-Hamdulillah, I am honored to have been nominated let alone win for Best Design in this year’s Brass Crescent Awards. There are many find blogs out there and it is indeed humbling to be recognized by the blogosphere. I would also like to congratulate my bride-to-be, Margari, on her Honorary Mention for Best Female Blog. My thanks for those who voted.

Wa l’-lah l’-lhamd.

“It is good to carry some powdered rouge in one’s sleeve. It may happen that when one is sobering up or waking from sleep, his complexion may be poor. At such time it is good to take out and apply some powdered rouge.” – Yamamoto Tsunetomo

The challenge of modernity is not met necessarily in the clash of civilizations, the clash of titans or anything quite as grandiose as we may be led to believe. Rather, it would be the clash of plurality; the attempt to make the many, one. In modern times, we often see the implacability of multiple notions on the same ideal. These neuroses have not escaped the Muslims here in America, where it is often more popular than not for self-appointed vanguards of personally conceived notions to coerce the masses into a mold other than that of their choosing. This is carried out by groups and individuals, that for lack of a better word and for dramatic effect, I will dub virtue bullies. The tactic is simple: bludgeon, batter and browbeat those who are perceived to differ in form and thus function of these bastions of moral rectitude. The results of these cultural-psychological attacks are the demonization of individuals and groups who can now easily be used as target practice – religious target practice in as far as this post is concerned. But in my opinion, these attacks are a rouse; a distraction, a cover-up. An applying of rouge to cover one’s blemishes.

What I am speaking about here, primarily, are the notions and concepts on manhood and vis-a-vie, Islam, that some bloggers have taken to attacking. These rants are not merely a waste of time – indeed, they are a fitnah, a trial and tribulation of the community in a time when we have bigger proverbial fish to fry. We live in a time when we need contributors, not detractors. Those who can strive intelligently and morally to say “yes”. Not to fall back on their shortcomings as a safety net to give us the all-too familiar, “no”. But we must get to the heart of these derisive comments. What is really being said here? What is the goal and what is it that these pundits of manhood are seeking to protect, or as I mentioned above, cover up?

To cut to the quick, many of these attacks have centered around the theme of a “hard working man”. The kind of man who earns his keep and, if possible, with his hands. Work that may not involve physical labor while not outright disdained, is certainly mistrustful. Vocations of an intellectual nature are cast with aspersions. After all, how can one really embody all that is right and manly, if you’re providing for your family while dressed in an ascot sweater, wearing suede shoes. Of course, we must not forget the affinity that such men may also have for coffee beverages, such as lattes, cappuccinos, and the like.

While the examples I am giving here are for dramaturgical effect, they are nonetheless, part and parcel with this scornful outlook on those who do not fit their predetermined profile. But in essence, these attacks are highly reminiscent of nativist sentiments towards immigration. Like the attitudes of many lower-class working whites at the turn of the 20th century who saw themselves as the defenders of a way of life, so to do these unsubstantiated claims smack of the same song ilk. Manhood, in the eyes of this self-selected few deem those who exist outside their socio-economic class as lacking in manhood. I say these notions are folly and instead, it would appear that their mascara is running at this point.

To say that Islam is a religion that is broad and wide enough to emcompass many modalities of manhood goes without saying. I would prefer to move beyond this Islam 101 narrative and instead seek to broaden the circle of enclosure. We must endeavor to find ways to include, not exclude. To state that the only acceptable form of dress is for men to dress as these pundits due is outright idiocy and completely outside their jurisdiction. Many such pundits have had the audacity to call for reforms in the community that will promote marriage, strong families and yet, many of them have been the participants of multiple marriages, leaving a wake of divocees, uncared for children and worse in their wake. How can someone who has little to no formal education, no formidable job skills, and makes a questionable contribution to community or society have the gumption to leer at persons who have a well-paying jobs, provide for their families in comfortable means, and even have the disposable income to potentially give to charity [something most of these individuals are hardly in the position to do, let alone reliably provide for their families in safe neighborhoods, provide quality educational opportunities for their children, etc.]? But instead of pointing the looking glass at themselves, they reach up their sleeves for some powdered rouge. Again, the mascara is really starting to run at this point. Only upon becoming spiritually sober, to awaken from the slumber of half-baked misconceptions of manhood whose substance is that of papier-mâché, will they have the chance to contribute something to themselves, their families and their communities and perhaps even society. I continue to be baffled at the state of some Muslims’ minds. With the serious future we face, that intellectual capital would be spent on something as asinine as this truly boggles the mind. Assuredly, manhood in Islam can be broad enough to accommodate a cup of coffee.

Of course, I am a tea drinker so I dare not ask what may be said of me.

Here’s another dose of reading material I will be covering over the next three to four months. A mix of academically required and personal. It all mixes together in the end some how.

[1] Luhmann, Niklas. A Socialogical Theory of Law. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. [2] White, Harrison C. White, Cynthia A. Canvases and Careers: Institutional Change in the French Painting World. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Miller, Hugh T. Postmodern Public Policy. Albany: State University of New York Press. [3] Reich, Robert B. I’ll Be Short. Boston: Beacon Press. [4] Makin, Amir. A Worthy Muslim: Quranic Tools Tools Needed to Overcome Oppression and Imperialism in Order to Institute Justice. Arlington: AIC Publications. {review pending} [5] Dolgon, Corey. The End of the Hamptons: Scenes From the Class Struggle in America’s Paradise. New York: New York University Press. [6] Bellah, Robert N., ed. Tipton, Steven M., ed. The Robert Bellah Reader. Durham: Duke University Press. [7] The Sociology Writing Group. A Guide to Writing Sociology Papers. New York: Saint Martin’s Press. [8] Evans, Nicholas M. Writing Jazz: Race, Nationalism, and Modern Culture in the 1920’s. New York: Garland Publishing Inc. [9] Anderson, Iain. This Is Our Music: Free Jazz, the Sixties, and American Culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. [10] Griffin, Farah Jasmine. Washington, Salim. Clawing At the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever. New York: Saint Martin’s Press. [11] Porter, Eric C. What Is This Thing Called Jazz?: African American Musicians As Artists, Critics, and Activists. Berkeley: University of California Press, Ltd. [12] Kahn, Ashley. The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records. London: Granta Books. [13] Costa, C. D. N., ed. Seneca: Dialogues and Letters. Trans. C. D. N. Costa. London: Penguin Books. [14] Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books. [15] Campell, Robin ed. Seneca: Letters From a Stoic. Trans. Robin Campbell. London: Penguin Books. [16] Wolff, Janet. The Social Reproduction of Art. New York: New York University Press. [17] Dick, Philip K. The Philip K. Dick Reader. New York: Kensington Publishing Corp. [18] Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. The Garden of Truth: The Vision and Promise of Sufism, Islam’s Mystical Tradition. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. [19] Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Knowledge and the Sacred. Albany: State University of New York Press. {con’t} [20] Hewitt, John P. Self and Society: A Symbolic Interactionist Social Psychology. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc. [21] Mast, Robert M., ed. Detroit Lives. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. [22] Naeem, Zarinah El-Amin. Jihad of the Soul. Kalamazoo: The Niyah Company. {review pending} [23] Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Sufi Essays. Chicago: KAZI Publications. [24] Postman, Neil. Building a Bridge To the Past: How the Past Can Improve Our Future. New York: Vintage Books. [25] al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid Muhammad. On Disciplining the Soul: Kitab Riyadat al-Nafs & Breaking the Two Desires: Kitab Kasr al-Shahwatayn, Books XXII and XXIII of The Revival of the Religious Sciences Ihya; ‘ulum al-din. Trans. T. J. Winter. Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society. [26] Izutsu, Toshihiko. “Mysticism and the Linguistic Problem of Equivocation in the Thought of ‘Ayn Al-Qu??t Hamad?n?.” Studia Islamica 31 (1970): 153-170.

Addendum

[26] Husayni Tihrani, Muhammad Husayn. Kernel of the Kernel: Concerning the Wayfaring and Spiritual Journey of the People of Intellect [Risala-yi Lubb al-Lubb Dar Sayr Wa Suluk-i Ulu'l Albab], A Shi’i Approach To Sufism. Albany State University of New York Press. [27] Izutsu, Toshihiko. Ethico-Religious Concepts in the Qur’an. Montreal: McGill University Press. [28] Ashtiyani, Sayyid Jalal al-Din, ed. Matsubara, Hideichi, ed. Iwami, Takashi, ed. Matsumoto, Akiro, ed. Consciousness and Reality: Studies in Memory of Toshihiko Izutsu. Leiden: Brill. [29] Izutsu, Toshihiko. God and Man in the Koran. Tokyo: The Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies.