New Muslim Cool

In my last post I said that I read two articles in class pertaining to Islamic media and never discussed the second article. The second article titled “A New Research Agenda: Exploring the Transglobal Hip Hop Umma”, by H. Samy Alim, discussed the role of Islam in relation to rap music. Many of rappers throughout history, such as African Bambatta, Mos Def, Jurassic 5 and most recently Lupe Fiasco have been Muslim. The article discussed how these artists and the rap community, in general, are instrumental to fostering a sense of identity among the Islamic youth. This sense of belonging to the Islamic community is what Alim describes as the transglobal umma.

Here is an interesting link to a Lupe Song called Mohammed Walks:

The Hip Hop umma is Hip Hop ability to create a transnational, imagined community of Muslims. To Alim, Hip Hop has a powerful nation building property as an already established cultural movement with a vast following. Hip Hop, especially in America, has been associated with political and social mobilization. It was established to give voice to the powerless and since then, according to Alim, is “has been an active vehicle for social protest”. Hip Hop as activism against discrimination has become an important instrument for Islamic youth in areas such as the UK or France, where Islamaphobia is increasing.

Along with the article we watched a piece of a documentary called “New Muslim Cool” about two Puerto Ricans who converted to Islam and started using rap music to spread the word of Mohammad and create a community of Muslims in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The documentary provides a unique perspective into the multi-culturalism that does not always get portrayed in media. It shows the positive effects that Islam has had on these two brothers lives who were once drug dealers going down the wrong path and Islam helped them remove themselves from their situation. Now they lead pious lives and are trying to spread a positive message about Islam.

Here is the trailer for the video:

Azizah

This week in my Global Cultures class we read two articles related to Islam in the media and constructing Islamic identities. The first article dealt with a women’s magazine titled, Azizah. Azizah was funded in order to represent Muslim women who may be seen as “uniformly veiled, subordinate, uneducated, and passive” (170). Each cover of the magazine features a beautiful veiled woman, while inside the magazine the editors include women of multiple ethnicities and also display Muslim women without the veil.

One of the questions brought up in class was whether or not Azizah ostracizes other Muslim women who choose not to wear the veil. In a majority of the Muslim world, except Saudi Arabia, women actually have a choice to the wear the veil. Thus, by featuring a veiled Muslim woman on every cover is the magazine solely targeting a specific audience and ostracizing the rest of women who choose not to wear the veil? One could argue that inside the magazine there features of women who are unveiled and who could speak to the population of Muslim women who do not wear the veil.

However, the question is not fully answered by simply talking about the audience of the magazine, but also of the male dominated media who quasi-control the content of Azizah magazine. I would argue that cover of the magazine is “public space”, while the content of the magazine is “private space” for the viewers. The distinction of public/private space follows a larger social ideology of the veil being worn in public and not in private. Thus, the magazine, while it may be for the purpose giving voice to underrepresented women, it’s content still cannot fully reject the collective interests of society.