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A Thesis Entitled Liberalism and the Impact on Religious Identity: Hijab A Thesis entitled Liberalism and the Impact on Religious Identity: Hijab Culture in the American Muslim Context by Butheina Hamdah Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in Political Science _________________________________________ Dr. Renée J. Heberle, Committee Chair _________________________________________ Dr. Samuel Nelson, Committee Member _________________________________________ Dr. Ovamir G. Anjum, Committee Member _________________________________________ Dr. Amanda Bryant-Friedrich, Dean College of Graduate Studies The University of Toledo December 2017 Copyright 2017, Butheina Hamdah This document is copyrighted material. Under copyright law, no parts of this document may be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author. An Abstract of Liberalism and the Impact on Religious Identity: Hijab Culture in the American Muslim Context by Butheina Hamdah Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in Political Science The University of Toledo December 2017 This paper examines the strategies by which the American Muslim community seeks to normalize its presence within mainstream American culture, and assesses how the social and moral customs of liberal society are internalized and operationalized by American Muslims as orthopraxy, or correct practice and conduct. Recent trends by American Muslims toward “inclusivity,” particularly as it requires the prioritization of non-religious, social and/or political understandings of the function and purpose of the hijab, will form the primary focus of this examination. What has become increasingly prevalent is the use of non-religious language pertaining to the hijab, particularly as a religious symbol functioning in and engaging with the public sphere. The central argument will demonstrate exactly how and why the hijab, a key religious symbol, and being a “hijabi,” (an identifier of women who wear the hijab) is being liberalized (and consequently secularized). This liberalization and secularization of the hijab result from the increasing appeal by American Muslim public figures to individualism, autonomy, and other liberal sensibilities over established theological edicts when making sense of why they cover and what it means to cover. iii To Riad, who re-ignited the spark in me. iv Acknowledgements My ability to complete this thesis would not have been possible without the boundless encouragement of my parents and siblings. My committee chair Dr. Renée Heberle challenged me intellectually throughout the process, making every effort to think alongside me as objectively as possible and work with me to make my paper more robust. Dr. Ovamir Anjum, from whom I learned a great deal, helped guide me in my interest in political theory and philosophy while maintaining my Islamic sensibilities. Our discussions, whether they occurred in meetings or in informal chats amongst friends in Istanbul, significantly informed this paper. The chair of UT’s Department of Political Science Dr. Samuel Nelson was always accessible for logistical questions and concerns and also provided advice early on in the process, helping me steer my work in the right direction. I thank my dear friends and colleagues Reem Subei and Aisha Sleiman, for their strong insights, and my sister Yasmeen Hamdah for her copy edits. Finally, I am grateful for my spouse Riad Alarian who emotionally and intellectually motivated me for months. An articulate writer himself, Riad lent his precise editing eye whenever I needed it, and countless “kitchen conversations” that prompted light-bulb moments. Each experience with you all led me to the finish line. v Table of Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements v Table of Contents vi Preface viii I. Debates on Islam and Liberalism 1 A. On Autonomy 3 a. The Linkage Between Moral and Personal Autonomy 4 B. On Individualism 5 C. On Public Reason 8 D. How Liberal Values Pervade the Muslim Community 13 E. Further Critiques of Islam and Liberalism’s Compatibility 15 F. Views in Support of Islam and Liberalism’s Compatibility 18 II. “Liberalizing” the Hijab 21 A. Hijab in Islam 21 B. Contemporary Debates on Hijab 24 a. Introducing “Mipsterz” 27 C. The Hijabi Fashion Industry 33 a. Pushing Back Against These Trends 34 II. Rationale and Implications 39 G. The Legacy of the Veil and Colonialism 39 a. History of Western Liberal Feminism and the Veil 41 H. Hijab Post-9/11 42 vi a. American Muslim Women’s New Public Role 44 I. A Liberal Defense of Islam 45 J. Implications for the Muslim Identity 50 K. Conclusions/Limitations 53 References 57 vii Preface This paper examines the strategies by which the American Muslim community seeks to normalize its presence within mainstream American culture, and assesses how the social and moral customs of liberal society are internalized and operationalized by American Muslims as orthopraxy, or correct practice and conduct. Recent trends by American Muslims toward “inclusivity,” particularly as it requires the prioritization of non-religious, social and/or political understandings of the function and purpose of the hijab, will form the primary focus of this examination. What has become increasingly prevalent is the use of non-religious language pertaining to the hijab, particularly as a religious symbol functioning in and engaging with the public sphere. The central argument will demonstrate exactly how and why the hijab, a key religious symbol, and being a “hijabi,” (an identifier of women who wear the hijab) is being liberalized (and consequently secularized). This liberalization and secularization of the hijab result from the increasing appeal by American Muslim public figures to individualism, autonomy, and other liberal sensibilities over established theological edicts when making sense of why they cover and what it means to cover. This paper traces how this phenomenon developed over time, notably in the post-9/11 era, and what contributed to it. As we will see, liberalism has contributed in large part to a relativist definition of the hijab in the American context. Chapter 1 will make a case that philosophical liberalism, while not a religion, is still a belief system and has defining principles and moral customs that form its worldview. I will pay particular attention to the core tenets of autonomy, individualism, and public reason. I will outline the recent viewpoints concerning Islam and liberalism viii today. My argument is that Muslims have been adopting and internalizing the tenets of liberalism (and these specific notions of autonomy, individualism, and public reason) even with respect to matters of their own faith (an unprecedented occurrence among Muslims), when seeking inclusion in a pluralist America. Chapter 2 will discuss current examples of the liberalization/secularization of the hijab in popular culture by contemporary hijabi activists/spokespersons. This will elucidate the transformation of the hijab into a political symbol that appeals to liberal tenets, such as autonomy and public reason, to frame the current debates. Chapter 3 will attribute this trend to the current wave of activism that emerged in the aftermath of 9/11 and became magnified with the rise of Donald Trump. It will arrive at the implications, and what can be learned/relearned by the reframing of the hijab and appeal to the liberal perspective that has secularized this otherwise historically religious symbolic presentation of self among women in Islam. ix Chapter 1 Debates on Islam and Liberalism Perhaps the best preliminary assessment of liberalism in the American Muslim community is found in the works of Sherman Jackson. In “The Impact of Liberalism, Secularism, & Atheism on the American Mosque,” (2016) Jackson argues that liberalism exists in numerous forms, but maintains three core principles which have influenced the sociopolitical arrangement of American society today. These three principles also form the basis through which current issues within the American Muslim community are essentially negotiated. They consist of: 1) autonomy, or the individual or collective self as the sole authoritative source of morality and socio-political organization, 2) commitment to the individual as the most fundamental unit (rather than family or community), and 3) public reason when negotiating conflict. As pithy as Jackson’s assessment of liberalism is, it is merely prefatory and requires supplementation. For this, we must direct our attention to the father of classical liberalism, John Locke. The core principles that define the “spectrum of liberalism” Jackson references date back to Locke’s ideas on reason, the individual, and natural and inalienable rights as contrasted to absolutism. In his Second Treatise on Civil Government, Locke (1988) contends that people come to understand natural law through reason alone, and that natural law and divine law are not in contradiction to one another but are instead analogous formulations. Under natural law, people are free, equal, and independent of sovereign authority. Locke’s account of the state of nature is that condition in which people live according to the law of reason, rather than any political authority, as regards the rights and responsibilities individuals have toward one another. 1 He writes that men are in a “perfect state of freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions, and persons as they see fit . without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man”
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