Islam and the West (and India)

Listening to BBC online (after my daily dose of BBCTamil) there is an interesting story coming out of Egypt. It's about Muslim televangelists. Everyone knows how I feel about televangelists, but this may be something different.

The story begins with a young man, attractive, well educated(was an engineer) who is now a TV preacher in Egypt. He says the Sheiks of the 70's and 80's delivered the message of "harram, harram, harram." (forbidden, in arabic, but a more important word for islam).
He realized there was "no message" for the people of his own generation. I have a good friend in Chicago who is an actively practicing muslim and his take on "harram v halal" is that alcohol and pork are forbidden, almost everything else is ok. There are other rules of course, but they are rules of "do" not rules of "don't." DO, prayers everyday. DO, give alms to the poor. DO, strive for justice and respect for life. These are required of islam sure, but rules of "do" sit better with me than rules of "don't."

So, back we come to this young former engineer in Egypt. He is dressed like a pop-star (of sorts) and preaches a message of "love." He has gained an enormous following in Egypt and other Arab states. Interviews have recently been conducted with young muslim girls (teenagers I should properly say) who are out at malls and attending concerts in small groups. They are discussing issues of dating and rules and all sorts of other things. These girls are in some senses adopting the philosophy of my friend in Chicago. They aren't so many things forbidden from them. In fact, the way we generally see things in the west (thanks to our marvelous media, who should resign their rights as journalists...) is that muslims are restricted from everything, especially fun. Sadly, I think that's the way it really is in some of the more radical political states on this side of the globe. However, the new breed of islam is beginning to take hold. Before I get ahead of myself let me say this:

I do not approve of televangelists because they are frauds.

However, I somehow think televangelist may be an unfortunate misnomer for this guy in Egypt. There are hundreds of them to be sure, it's a fast growing sect. What concerns me is that the development of Islam is behind that of Christianity (mostly because Islam is several hundred years younger). In the west, of course, we see that the new breed of Christianity (evangelical christianity) as we call it is not progressive on many issues at all. It simply brings back old views with a modern "spin." Evangelicals are WAY INTO rules of "don't." I hope that this isn't the path on which the new Islam is.

How does this relate to India you may ask? Well, India has over 100 million muslims. In fact, I think there are closer to 200 million living here (Stop having so many damn babies! Can't you see how bad this overpopulation is?). Here, in Southeast India that population is much smaller. Hinduism is far and away the most dominant religion in these parts and Islam is barely bigger (by numbers) than Christianity (sadly of the evangelical variety). Islam here is slightly different than Islam in say Pakistan. I see Muslim women around here quite often with their faces and hair uncovered. That was a real shocker to me. A friend here once pointed to a couple eating dinner at a nearby table and asked me if I could tell they were Muslim. I said they sort of looked like it, but the woman was showing her hair. After they finished eating, she put a scarf back on her hair, but it was loose. She wasn't making a big deal of fully covering everything. Sandals and loose pants underneath her long gown suggested she was simply dressing for the weather and "obeying" religious statutes. The culture here, as I have pointed out before is extremely Tamil. People here are ardent defenders of the traditions and the old ways of life. That means Islam here follows slightly different rules than Islam in northern India.

So what's going on with Islam? I can't say for sure, because I'm not a practitioner, but I can see that with it's influence growing wider and wider in the world, it will be required to begin adapting just like Christianity did over the last several hundred years. If we think of the course of action Christianity has taken, we should partly expect the same from Islam, with a more rapid development due to technology and how quickly we can disseminate information.

Vodka at a Muslim wedding? Sure, why not if you're in Uzbekistan or southern Russia? Completely restrictive laws and no women's rights? Sure, if you're in a radical political state. Ability to function like a normal human being and practice your own religious laws? Sure, if you're Muslim in Singapore. I think the face of Islam will change into many faces so that this extremism will truly be isolated. The anti-revolution of 2079 will reverse the revolution of 1979 when Iran became the first radical religious-political state.

Maybe THIS televangelist isn't so bad as his misnomer leads me to believe... (not yet decided)