Peace Be Unto Those Who Follow Right Guidance.
Check out the following video which explains in under 3 minutes how Orientalism functions as a ‘lens’ through which to construct stereotypes of the non-white / non-European ‘other’:
Peace
Peace Be Unto Those Who Follow Right Guidance.
I’m very interested to watch the following film:
According to the entry for the film on the IMDB , “a scientist and a teacher living in a dystopian future embark on a journey of survival with a special young girl named Melanie.” Significantly, that ‘special young girl’ is non-white / black in the film which is based on a book by white male author M.R.Carey. (It will be interesting to determine whether the ‘special young girl’ in the book was also non-white/black.)
SPOILER ALERT: A Wikipedia summary of the book’s plot is available here.
However, at this point, I am interested in interrogating the following promotional image for the film:
From a Counter-Racist perspective, I am interested in how we visually process the above image. For example,
And then, of course, there is the issue of the asymmetry in blood-marking on the above image to think about.
I would suggest that the casting of a non-white/black female as the ‘special young girl’ is interesting to consider in terms of a possible instance of the “Magical Negro” phenomenon in the sci-fi film genre, viz.
a supporting stock character … who is portrayed as coming to the aid of a film’s white protagonists. Magical Negro characters, who often possess special insight or mystical powers, have long been a tradition in American fiction.
Time and the actual viewing of the film will tell, insha’Allah (God-Willing).
Peace
Peace Be Unto Those Who Follow Right Guidance.
Interested readers are invited to check out the following two papers produced as part of the TOLERACE project.
Here is the description of the project given on its website:
TOLERACE is a collaborative research project (March 2010 – February 2013) – funded under the EU Seventh Framework Programme – aiming at producing a better understanding of the workings of institutional racism, that is, of the ways in which racism – deeply rooted in the history of European democracies and their existing socio-economic and political structures – still persists despite an apparent political commitment to eradicate it.
TOLERACE’s main objectives have been twofold: (i) to explore how the different meanings given to racism and anti-racism are shaped by public bodies and policies, as well as civil society organisations, at the European, national, regional and local levels; (ii) to identify the impact of these meanings on the marginalisation of anti-racism within current integration/inclusion policies and post-colonial situations.
The project has carried out research in seven European contexts: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.
The Media and Muslims in the UK by Katy Sian, Ian Law and Salman Sayyid
Debates on difference and integration in education: Muslims in the UK by Katy Sian, Ian Law and Salman Sayyid
Peace
Peace Be Unto Those Who Follow Right Guidance.
According to Western [=White Supremacist (Racist)] “news” reports,
On May 1, 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama authorised a raid on Osama bin Laden’s suspected location near Abbottabad, Pakistan. The operation was successfully carried out by United States Navy SEALs, with intelligence support from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and Pakistani intelligence. During the 40-minute raid, bin Laden was fatally shot in the head. After intelligence searches of the compound were conducted, his body was taken into custody at which point genetic and facial recognition tests were performed. After positive identification, and within 24 hours of his death, bin Laden’s body was taken out to sea for burial.
Now consider the following sign/indicator (ayat) from The Qur’an [=The Final Proclamation of God/Allah to Humanity]:
(49:6) O you who have become securely committed to God/Allah [and thereby attained security]! If a person who has forgotten God/Allah [and as a result forgotten ‘self’ in the sense of understanding their relationship to God/Allah (59:19)] – a faasiq – comes to you with news (nabaa), look carefully into it, lest you harm a people in ignorance, then later regret what you have done.
The word faasiq derives from the Arabic verb fa-sa-qa which, according to ‘Abdul Mannan ‘Omar, author of Dictionary of The Holy Qur’an (2005), means
to commit disobedience, go astray, transgress commandment, live in profligacy, disorder, become wicked, profligate, commit lewdness, become peverted, be impious, act wickedly.
In The Elements of Sufism (1990), the Shi’a sufi, Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri, maintains that
The Arabic word for decay which is fisq means the bursting of a date from its skin before it is fully ripe. It has transgressed its programme for maturation and fulfilment. (p.71)
From an Islamic Counter-Racist perspective, the White Supremacists (Racists) are clearly faasiqeen in that they have forgotten [=ignored] the ultimate/absolute/final supremacy of God/Allah, resulting in them forgetting themselves, i.e. forgetting their station/standing/place (maqaam) and their essence/nature (maahiya) as the servants/slaves ‘ibaad of God/Allah, their Nourishing Sustainer/Lord (Rabb). Given this fact, the discerning Counter-Racist analyst should be wary of “news” (nabaa) released/circulated by the White Supremacists (Racists).
In this connection, check out the following video by conspiracy researcher, Alex Jones. (I have written about Jones previously on this blog. See the blog post: “COMMENT: The Alex Jones Deception“.)
Peace
The BANDUNG2 Blog 