Page 18 - Pakistan Link - March 23, 2018

P18 – PAKISTAN LINK – MARCH 23, 2018 COMMUNITY
In Memory of UC Berkeley’s Pakistani-American Professor Saba Mahmood

n By Riaz Haq Mahmood saw many contradictions in modern secular
governance. In spite of its claim to religious neutrality, the secu-
Dr Saba Mahmood, professor of anthropology at the Uni- lar state does not hesitate to regulate and manage religious life in
versity of California at Berkeley, passed away on March 10, 2018. a way that is historically unprecedented.
She was only 56 years old when her life was cut short by pancre- Mahmood wrote that “the rights of minorities are actually
atic cancer. She is survived by her husband Professor Charles framed by the norms of the larger community; it’s against those
Hirschkind and son Nameer Hirschkind. norms that minoritarian claims are judged and contested, and
Born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1962, she came to the United that is where the idea of religious liberty and freedom of expres-
States in 1981. She received her PhD in anthropology from Stan- sion as an individual right remains inadequate to grasping the
ford University in 1998 and taught at the University of Chicago situation.” She saw the French ban on Muslim veil being upheld
before coming to the University of California at Berkeley in 2004. in courts on a very similar reasoning that there is a freedom of
She lived only a few miles from where I live in Silicon Val- religion but the public expression in the form of wearing the veil
ley. But I was not lucky enough to get to know her personally. contradicts the national secular norm.
However, I developed immense respect for her based on her In a 1999 paper titled “Feminism, the Taliban and the
work, particularly her scholarship on secularism, feminism and Politics of Counterinsurgency” she co-wrote with her husband
Islamophobia in the post-9/11 world. Mahmood was the lone Charles Hirschkind, the couple criticized American feminists
author of Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Re- for focusing on Taliban’s excesses while ignoring the US com-
port (2015) and Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the plicity in creating the miserable conditions for Afghan women.
Feminist Subject (2005), which won the Victoria Schuck Award Here’s an excerpt:
from the American Political Science Association. She co-au- “The Feminist Majority’s narrow focus on Taliban rule, and
thored Is Critique Secular? (2011) and co-edited Politics of Reli- its silence regarding the channeling of US aid to the most bru-
gious Freedom (2015). tal and violent Afghan groups (of which the Taliban were only
She wrote several papers and articles related to her field one), seemed to cast an ominous shadow on the integrity of its
of study. Examples include “Feminist Theory, Agency, and the campaign. At the very least it raised the question why conditions
Liberatory Subject: Some Reflections on the Islamic Revival in of war, militarization, and starvation were considered to be less
Egypt” and “Cultural Studies and Ethnic Absolutism: Comments injurious to women than lack of education, employment, and,
on Stuart Hall’s ‘Culture, Community, Nation’”. most notably, Western clothes. The Feminist Majority’s silence
Mahmood was a student of Drology at the City University on these issues was coupled with a highly selective and limited
of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center. Talal is the son of Aus- Professor Saba Mahmood (Photo credit: Annette Hornischer) representation of Afghan life under Taliban rule, one that fil-
trian-born Muhammad Asad (born Leopold Weiss) who served tered out all information that might contribute to a more nu-
as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations in 1952. the kind of injury expressed by ordinary pious Muslims did not anced understanding of Afghan women’s situation.”
In discussing her book “Is Critique Secular? Blasphemy, find any voice in the polemical debates in either the Islamic or As a Muslim woman born and raised in Pakistan, Dr Saba
Injury, and Free Speech” published in 2009 when the Danish the European press”. She asked if it was because the “religiosity Mahmood’s research and scholarship brought her unique per-
cartoons controversy was raging, Mahmood said that “struggles expressed by most Muslims in response to the Danish cartoons spective to the academic discourse on secularism, minority re-
over religious difference cannot simply be settled by the heavy was incommensurable with the language of rights, litigation, and lations and the study of religion in the West. Her voice will be
hand of the law.” Adding that she was “puzzled by the fact that boycotts that came to dominate the debate.” badly missed! May her soul rest in eternal peace! Ameen.
Moms Teach Kids to Be ‘Patriots’ by Vandalizing Mosque

n By Rowaida Abdelaziz
Reporter, HuffPost parents. It’s really disheartening,”
Al-Akoum, the operations director
disturbing Facebook live and acting imam of the center, told
video has recently surfaced HuffPost.
A of a troubling excursion in The Tempe Police Department
which two women take a group says it is investigating trespass re-
of children to vandalize and steal ports against Dauenhauer and Gon-
materials at a mosque in Tempe, zales on behalf of the Islamic center,
Arizona, in an attempt to “expose the police department’s media rela-
the evil that is happening in our tions officer, Det. Liliana Duran, told
backyards.” HuffPost. More charges are likely to
In three bizarre videos pub- be filed, she said. The two women are
lished March 4 by Facebook user not now charged or in custody, how-
Tahnee Gonzales, she and another ever.
woman take three unidentified chil- HuffPost reached out to Gonza-
dren on a trip to the mosque in order les but did not hear back. HuffPost
to “collect as much information” and was unable to contact Dauenhauer,
“expose mosques” in order to teach and she has since deleted her Face-
the children how to be “American book page.
patriots.” HuffPost reached out to US
In one outlandish scene, Gon- Customs and Border Protection to
zales and the second woman, identi- inquire about both women’s em-
fied as Elizabeth “Liz” Dauenhauer, ployment status after Dauenhauer
lead the children to trespass onto claimed on Facebook that she worked
the mosque’s private property after for the agency. CBP confirmed to
Gonzales delivers a hateful lecture on The children are then seen hauer’s Facebook page. told her it removed Gonzales from HuffPost that neither women is em-
Muslims during the car trip there. climbing upon the mosque’s funeral Local news reports said the group before the incident. The ployed by the agency.
“They smell like goat,” exclaims van while one of the women warns Wednesday morning that the women group, however, denied to HuffPost In one of the videos posted on
a girl in the background once the one of the boys about the “dead Mus- were part of the Patriot Movement that Gonazles was ever a member. the same day after the trip, Gonzales
group enters through the gated fence lims” and “sex goats” that she says AZ, which the Southern Poverty Law HuffPost spoke to the imam of asks her daughter for her thoughts
and walks around a play area at the were once stored in the truck. Center has deemed a “fringe group the Islamic Community Center of about sharia, or Islamic law, and
Islamic Community Center of Tem- One of videos posted by Gon- being energized and influenced by Tempe, where the incident occurred. the child responds, “F it.” When her
pe. Both women immediately laugh. zales has since been taken down but the president’s over-the-top rhetoric Ahmad Al-Akoum reviewed the mom asks to explain more, the young
Gonzales then tells the group and the was reposted on a number of other on immigrants and Muslims.” footage and delivered evidence to the girl says sharia allows “old men ... to
viewers on camera that Muslims are accounts, including a Facebook page The video begins with the two Tempe Police Department the next marry young kids at my age.”
destroying America and are “devil under the name Naui Ocelot that has women in the front of a car with the day. The Islamic Community Center The litany of disinformation re-
Satan worshippers.” accumulated over 10,000 views. The three children in the back. The wom- is working with the Tempe police to peated by the young children in the
Once back in the parking lot, other two videos are still on Gonza- en have brought flags for the children investigate charges against Gonzales video has alarmed the Muslim com-
after having stolen flyers and other les’ personal Facebook page. Huff- and call them “little infidels.” and Dauenhauer. munity in Arizona.
items from the mosque, the women Post has also obtained copies of the Gonzales rallies her viewers to This isn’t the first time the “The most jarring thing about
praise the girl and two boys for their videos. “get off their butts” to fight Islamic mosque has been on the receiving the video is clearly the fact there are
racist comments and for participat- The Tempe Police Department religious law. She then calls Deedra end of a hate crime, but it was shock- children involved, indoctrinated to
ing in the burglary. confirmed to HuffPost the identities Abboud, a Muslim woman running ing for the community to see young hate people based off their belief sys-
The women then circle the of Tahnee Gonzales and Elizabeth as a Democratic candidate in Ari- children participating in the vile at- tem or what they look like or the col-
property and take photos of the kids Dauenhauer. HuffPost also matched zona for the US Senate, a threat to tacks, Al-Akoum said. or they are. You can see that unfold-
standing in front of the mosque. The the women in the video to their in- America. “What really affected me the ing in real time,” said Imraan Siddiqi,
little girl instructs one of the boys to dividual Facebook pages based on Abboud posted on Facebook her most is seeing those young children the executive director of the Arizona
put his “thumbs down” and pouts as their appearances. In addition, the condemnation of the pair’s actions, getting real-life lessons in hate, that chapter of the Council on American-
the group poses for a photo. Facebook page Naui Ocelot, which saying they are “not ‘standing up was the thing that made me really, Islamic Relations.
“Be careful, because Muslims reposted the now deleted video, in- for America’ or representing Ameri- really upset with those people. Those “Ironically about all of this is
are waiting to rape you,” the young cluded links to both Gonzales’ per- can values in any way.” Abboud told innocent 5-, 6-year-old children are that the trope exists among these
girl is heard telling the boy. sonal Facebook page and to Dauen- HuffPost that Patriot Movement AZ now really learning hate from their MOMS, P24
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