Islamic democracy discussed in weekend's lectures

The 32nd annual Association of Muslim Social Scientists conference met this weekend in Bloomington to discuss the topic "East Meets West: Understanding the Muslim Presence in Europe and North America."\nDuring his opening remarks, Dean of International Programs Patrick O'Meara said the focus of the conference was "Islam in the context of democracy."\n"We've got a lot of people in Washington we could educate on that," O'Meara said. \nHe talked of how he was born in Capetown, South Africa, and since then has seen great reforms come to the country. He pointed to the country as an example of how change is possible. \n"There is no political situation that is chronic, but we have to work to bring about change," O'Meara said. \nDirector of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Program Nazif Shahrani said he hoped the conference would be an opportunity for scholars to share ideas and dispel the myth that Islam is a religion of exotic people somewhere other than Europe and America. \nShahrani said the struggle for power and unfair competition for resources are the causes of what is happening today. \n"It is not our job as intellectuals simply to speculate," he said. "We must look for solutions." \nDiscussions between participants were ongoing in the halls outside the auditoriums where the panel conferences were being held. \nOn Saturday, Zareena Grewal, doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan, posed a question to Ali Hassan Zaidi about the relevance of his paper on Islam and Modernism. \nZaidi, a doctoral candidate at York University in Toronto, had just argued that the debate over Muslim reconstructions of knowledge should be viewed as social theory. \n"Muslims are inside and outside of modernity," Zaidi said. He pointed to the events of Sept. 11 as an extreme example where terrorists used elements of modernity (the aviation technology necessary for airplanes) to attack modernity (the western capitalism and technology represented by the World Trade Center). \nDuring the question and answer session, Grewal asked if Zaidi was approaching the problem in the right way. She asked if framing the situation in terms of "modernity" was appropriate. She argued that Zaidi should look at the problem in terms of Post-Colonialism instead. \nThis led to a debate on the opposite side of the room between Maliha Chishti, Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto, and professor Shahrani, who was sitting behind Chishti. \nChishti said she supported Grewal's argument, while Shahrani brought up the issue of the non-presence of Muslim participation in the industrial revolution that allowed for capitalism to flourish in the West.\nChishti argued that Muslims did not miss the boat. She said there were different applications for technology and logic "to seek the truth or to seek power." The West used the technology developed during the industrial revolution to seek power, Chishti said. \nThe debate was cooled by panel chair Bob Crane, from the Center for Understanding Islam in New Jersey. He made closing remarks so that the panel could break at 5 p.m. for prayer.\nDr. Ali Mazrui was the keynote speaker Saturday night. He told the story of how he had been detained at an airport in Miami for seven hours, during which the investigators asked him what his views were on jihad.\n"So I gave them Jihad 101 and hoped that they would understand it later on," Mazrui said. \nHe said the members of the "terrorist task force" who interrogated him were "most courteous."\n"They had the grace to book me a hotel room, book me a new flight and they gave me $25 for dinner," he said. \nBut Mazrui said the incident was an example of the fear and paranoia sometimes fed by politicians after Sept. 11. \n"The current administration regards fear as political currency," Mazrui said. "There is a lot of information about me if you just press some buttons on the internet"