FAQ: “How does your work deal with practically addressing the problem?”

The “FAQ” posts on this site are snippets of discussions I have had, or questions I have answered, in person, by email, or on other social networking platforms, which are collated here for ease of reference.

Question: 

“Don’t you think it’s time to shift the narrative from discrediting Muslim feminists, to opening up a discussion on why Muslim women turn to feminism in the first place? And addressing the social root causes of the problem? (i.e. domestic violence, being excluded from places of worship, the many social ills of our Muslim community when dealing with gender issues etc. etc. etc.). I’m just really curious to know how your work deals with practically addressing the problem.”

Answer:

Firstly, my work is not about “discrediting Muslim feminists”, it is about intellectually testing feminism (and asking why, despite its shortcomings, it is so aggressively posited as an ideological solution to the social ills around us) and identifying the real cause of our social problems – gender anarchy not patriarchy. The fact that you seem to refer to domestic violence and mosque exclusion etc as being “root causes”, rather than failing to recognise that these are in fact *symptoms*, is demonstration of how much work there is to be done.

My work is not about booing feminism for the fun of it; in fact it is *entirely* about positing a better alternative (Islam) and practical solutions (e.g. my most recent lecture in Malaysia, here). You cannot, however, ask for the practical and disregard the intellectual, and you certainly should not take practical action without having a rational basis for your course of action. Just as you cannot construct a building of lasting use upon faulty foundations, you cannot reform society without first exposing and correcting the problems in its thinking and discounting those ideologies which give rise to the problems in the first place (identity politics, feminism, and individualism included).

How does my work deal with practically addressing the problem? By my exhorting the proper solution (Islam) to men and women, and inviting them to implement it in their lives at all levels. This work would be made much more easier if more people supported it rather than acted as obstacles in its path in the name of failed Western ideologies.