An Islamic Theology of Compassion in Relation to Liberation Theology: a Critical Assessment of Positive Muslims' Approach to HIV and AIDS

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How to cite this thesis

Surname, Initial(s). (2012). Title of the thesis or dissertation (Doctoral Thesis / Master’s Dissertation). Johannesburg: University of Johannesburg. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/102000/0002 (Accessed: 22 August 2017). 1

An Islamic Theology of Compassion in Relation to Liberation Theology: A Critical Assessment of Positive Muslims’ Approach to HIV and AIDS

A Dissertation

Submitted to the Department of Religious Studies

Faculty of Humanities

University of Johannesburg

Masnoenah Kamalie 201284341

In Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters in Semitic Languages and Cultures

31 October 2019

Johannesburg, South Africa

Supervisor: Professor Farid Esack 3

ABSTRACT

Positive Muslims, a faith-based NGO focused on the care and advocacy of HIV and AIDS within the South African Muslim community was first established in Cape Town in the year 2000 during the height of a period referred to as state-sponsored AIDS denialism. The trajectory of the establishment, its response and approach to HIV & AIDS support in the South African Muslim community with its underlying Islamic theology impulses, and its subsequent closure o in 2011 - is the main focus of this research thesis. Locating the emergence of Positive Muslims as a particularized faith-inspired, socially motivated response to a global pandemic within a context of hyper-misinformation, uncertainty, state- sponsored denialism, I explore how contemporary Muslims draw from, interpret and develop their own understandings and nuanced praxis of liberatory theologies, as one response to the HIV & AIDS pandemic within the South African context. Contextualizing the emergence of Positive Muslims and their Theology of Compassion as an adjectivized responsive theology anchored in Liberation Theology specifically and Muslim responses to HIV & AIDS generally, this thesis maps out some of the prevailing attitudes, anxieties and responses within the broader global landscape of HIV & AIDS research.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Writing this thesis commenced as an arduous endeavour. Derailed by many of life’s uncontrollable and unexpected knocks, twists and turns, challenges in health and other spheres I believed it to be an endeavour I would not have the strength and stamina to achieve. Thus, no matter how stressful life was, reflecting back and feeling extremely blessed in having reached this day, I must admit that writing this thesis has been interesting and very rewarding. This elation could not have been achieved without the support of a number of people who have contributed to the final result in many different ways. To commence with, I express my sincere gratitude to my creator, Allah, the beneficent, the merciful and compassionate, to have bestowed upon me courage, inspiration, eagerness, and strength, but most importantly a number of people without whose support I would never have been able to traverse this journey. Thus, after Allah, I express my sincere and deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof Farid Esack, Professor in the Religion Studies Department at the University of Johannesburg, for his unstinting faith in me, for believing in my scholarly potential, for the extent of his supervisory and human support, and for supporting it in moments where many others would have given up. I thank him, his invaluable guidance, constant encouragement, affectionate attitude, understanding, patience and healthy criticism added considerably to my scholarly experience, but more importantly my growth as a human being. Without his constant inspiration, it would have not been possible to complete this study.

I owe my special thanks to my friends, Mariam Baderoon, Waseema Abduraouf, Fayruz Patton, Igsaan Frieslaar, who rendered emotional and physical support, sending me resources, and listening attentively, as if it were interesting, as I talked through with them the grappling of my thesis. An indebted thanks to my dear friend and mentor from who I learn every day, Nafisa Patel, for her resolute faith in my ability to do this, and for her support in serving as a sounding board and proof-reader throughout this academic journey. I am deeply indebted to my fellow students at UJ, particularly Alexander Marwaan Abbasi and Aber Kawas for enormous editorial assistance. My gratitude also goes to my former workspace and colleagues at the International Peace College South Africa, in particular Dr Abdul Kariem Toffar, Dr Moegammad Hoosain Ebrahim (d. 2018) and Shaykh M. Ighsaan Taliep. A special thank you to all involved in Positive Muslims for the engagements and participation in this study.

Most importantly, I thank my family for dealing with the late nights, skipping family events, forgetting about some scheduled excursions, not cooking that led to some unhealthy eating habits I must seriously reconsider. My husband, Sedick Kamalie, for his patience and loving care with me at all times, may your reward be great in this life and in the Hereafter. To my children, Muzzammil, Saajiedah, Thaufier, and Abdul Ghaalied, who are my entire world, I thank Allah and them for just being the amazing children that I have been blessed to bring into this world, may they always be in Allah’s care and protection. 5

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

1. Background and Context to the Study 8 2. Mapping Global Perspectives on HIV & AIDS 10 3. HIV & AIDS in the Muslim World and the South African Muslim Context 12 4. Research Rationale 19 5. Research Questions 20 6. Research Methodology 22 7. Data Collection Procedures, Techniques and Instruments 23 8. Data Analysis 24 9. Ethical Considerations 24 10. Research Structure 25

CHAPTER ONE: HIV & AIDS, Islam and Muslims 1.1 Introduction 28 1.2 The World Responds to the HIV pandemic 28 1.3 Religion, Illness & HIV 31 1.4 Islam and Illness 34 1.5 Muslim Responses to the Pandemic 37

CHAPTER TWO: Muslims Confronting Theological Challenges and the Explicit Naming of Responsive Theologies 2.1 Introduction 43 2.2 Locating Theology in Islam/ for Muslims: Islamic Traditional Account on the Development of Theology 43 2.3 Modern Views on the Development of Islamic Theology 50 2.4 The Naming of Different Theologies 59

CHAPTER THREE: The Formation, Objectives and Location of Positive Muslims (PM) 3.0 Introduction 61 3.1 Theology of Reconstruction 63 3.2 Theology of Citizenship: Fiqh al-Muwatanah/ Fiqh al-Aqaliyat/ Fiqh al-Wāqi’iyyah 65 3.3 Islamic Feminism 68 3.4 Liberation Theology 71 6

CHAPTER FOUR: The Organization of Positive Muslims – Between a Theology of Compassion and Liberation 4.1 Introduction 76 4.2 The Establishment of Positive Muslims 77 4.3 The Objectives of Positive Muslims and the Motivation of its Leadership Figures 80 4.4 Composition and Location 85 4.5 Positive Muslims’ Community and Audience 89 4.6 Structure and Decision-Making 100

CHAPTER FIVE: The Theology of Compassion as an Example of Adjectivised Engaged Theology Anchored in Liberation Theology

5.1 Introduction 102 5.2 Adjectivized Responsive Theologies: Theology of Compassion 102 5.3 Comparative Analysis of Theology of Compassion and Liberation Theology Themes 105 5.4 Islamic Liberation Theology Incognito? Liberation Theology Undercover 108

CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX 1 and 2

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

AH: After Hijra (Islamic Calendar) AIDS: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome ANC: African National Congress ARV: Antiretroviral ASHURA: Majlis al-Ashura al-Islami CDC: Centres for Disease Control CELAM: Consejo Episcopal Latino-Americano CMV: Cytomegalovirus CRDA: Christian Relief and Development Association HIV: Human Immunodeficiency Virus ICSA: The Islamic Council of South Africa IMA: Islamic Medical Association LBTQI: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, & Intersex MAC: Muslim Action Campaign MAC: Muslim Assembly Cape MJC: Muslim Judicial Council MMC’s: Muslim-majority countries MYM: Muslim Youth Movement NGO: Non-Governmental Organization NOVIB: Netherlands Organization for International Development PCP: Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia PhD: Doctor of Philosophy PLWHA: People Living with HIV AIDS PM: Positive Muslims SANZAF: South African National Zakah Fund TAC: Treatment Action Campaign UDF: United Democratic Front UNAIDS: The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS UNDP: United Nations Development Programme UNICEF: United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund WARC: World Alliance of Reformed Churches WHO: World Health Organization 8

INTRODUCTION

0.1 Background and Context to the Study The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a global pandemic that continues to be a major public health concern worldwide. According to UNAIDS Fact Sheet (2019) in 2018, an estimated 32.7 million - 44.0 million people, including 1.8 million children, were living with HIV. Since the start of the pandemic an estimated 58 million – 98.1 million people have become infected and 23 million - 43.8 million have died of AIDS1 - related illnesses. In 2018 alone 1.1 million people died of AIDS - related illnesses. Although latest medical research studies have provided much more clarity on the spread and treatment of the virus itself, which has significantly impacted upon how the pandemic is currently understood, approached and accepted in different social contexts, during the early 2000s there was much less clarity. The initial years of the HIV2 pandemic were considered to be an especially challenging and uncertain period for understanding the causes and dealing with the broader social effects of this debilitating condition.

Particularly in its earlier years, HIV was only understood to be viral, deadly, and highly contagious via unknown means. These variables led to considerable panic on the part of professionals and laypeople alike. Fear fuelled prejudice of populations perceived to be at the highest risk for HIV infection. (https://www.publichealth.org/public-awareness/hivaids/origin-story/)

In South Africa, the spread of HIV infections exacerbated by intersecting issues of wide-spread poverty, inadequate health facilities and rampant forms of race-based inequalities. Furthermore, at the state level, the nascently formed post-apartheid democratic government under the 1999-2008 presidency of Thabo Mbeki and the Minister of Heath, Manto Tshabalala-

1 “AIDS is the acronym for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. It is the stage of HIV infection where a person's immune system is fully compromised, leaving the body open to a wide range of potentially deadly conditions known as opportunistic infections. As such, HIV can be considered to be the cause and AIDS the effect of such infection. When the body is infected with the HI virus, it attacks and eventually destroys the body’s immune system. The immune system normally fights germs, infections, bacteria and viruses that would make you sick. The body cannot defend itself against germs, infections, bacteria and viruses when its immune system gets weak. Thus, person infected with HIV are susceptible to infections and bacteria such as Tuberculosis (TB), pneumonia, and other immune conditions. A person gets sick when HIV has destroyed most of his/her immune system. This can take many years to happen.” https://www.avert.org/about-hiv-aids/what-hiv-aids 2 In the earlier stages of the pandemic the two words were often used together as in “HIV/AIDS”. Subsequently, as it became clearer that life with HIV can be significantly prolonged with proper treatment before the onset of AIDS this expression was dropped. 9

Msimang (d. 2009) were deeply mired in a cloud of AIDS denialism.3 In his September 2000 address to Parliament, Mbeki questioned whether a virus can cause a syndrome, and suggested that poor nutrition is one of the major causes of its rising infection rates. During his presidency Mbeki attempted to stop the provision of anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs, whilst the health ministry promoted lemons, beetroot, African potatoes and garlic as better forms of treatment for people living with AIDS4. Most notably, in 2002 a landmark court case was won by advocacy group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC)5 in the Constitutional Court that compelled the state to make antiretroviral treatment available to HIV-positive pregnant women.

Coupled with state-level denialism and civil society responses and other advocacy campaigns such as TAC, religious groupings and faith-communities in South Africa were initially at the fringes of these debates. Some adopted a position of disinterest, self-imposed ignorance or their religious repertoires were deemed inadequate to offer salient responses to complex medical and social health issues. However, given the wide-spread social, emotional and economic effects of the AIDS pandemic, religious and faith-based organizations were forced, whether directly or indirectly, to articulate and proactively act and respond to the material, spiritual and practical effects (even if not the causes) of the condition and its treatment. It was during this period, in the year 2000 that South African NGO6 Positive Muslims was first established in Cape Town, South Africa.

3 According to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) “The impact of Mbeki’s AIDS denialism between 1999 - 2008 was considered to be catastrophic. Two independent studies have estimated that delays in making antiretroviral treatment available in the public sector in South Africa resulted in more than 300,000 avoidable deaths. It also resulted in an estimated 35,000 babies being born with HIV who would not otherwise have been HIV- positive. Under Mbeki’s watch life-expectancy in South Africa dropped to 54 in 2005. Life-expectancy has recovered dramatically in the post-Mbeki era to 63 in 2015. This increase is widely attributed to the ambitious rollout of antiretroviral therapy in the public healthcare system under the leadership of Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.” (https://tac.org.za/) 4 https://ewn.co.za/2016/03/07/Mbeki-sticks-to-his-guns-on-HIV & AIDS-and-nutrition 5 The TAC was established in 1998 as an advocacy group for the access to quality health care in South Africa. It is one of the key agitators for the free prescriptions of anti-retroviral treatments to all HIV- positive patients at state health care facilities in South Africa. https://www.givengain.com/c/tac/about.

6 “A non-governmental organization (NGO) is a non-profit, citizen-based group that functions independently of government. NGOs, sometimes called civil societies, are organized on community, national and international levels to serve specific social or political purposes, and are cooperative, rather than commercial, in nature. According to the World Bank there are two broad groups of NGOs, a) Operational NGOs, which focus on development projects; b) Advocacy NGOs, which are organized to promote particular causes. Certain NGOs may fall under both categories simultaneously. NGOs include those that support human rights, advocate for improved health or encourage political participation. While the term "NGO" has various interpretations, it is generally accepted to include private organizations that operate without government control and that are non-profit and non-criminal. Other 10

Locating the emergence of Positive Muslims as a particularized faith-inspired, socially motivated response to a global pandemic within a context of hyper-misinformation, uncertainty, and state-sponsored denialism, I am interested in exploring how contemporary Muslims draw from, interpret and develop their own understandings and nuanced praxis of liberatory theologies – more specifically the development of a Theology of Compassion as a corollary or expression of Islamic Liberation Theology - as one response to the HIV & AIDS pandemic within the South African context. To help contextualize the emergence of Positive Muslims specifically and Muslim responses to HIV & AIDS more generally, it is necessary to map out some of the prevailing attitudes, anxieties and responses within the broader global landscape of HIV & AIDS research.

0.2. Mapping Global Perspectives on HIV & AIDS

In mapping out the field of HIV & AIDS research and global perspectives, I focus specifically on information that was available during the initial period of the early 2000s, to help understand how and what informed some of the then prevailing sentiments towards the condition. For example, between 2011-12 the pandemic was particularly prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa, which reflected the highest number of estimated HIV+7 adults and children during that year with a staggering number at 6100 000 infected individuals (UNAIDS, 2012). According to the 2012 UNAIDS report, South Africa also recorded the highest number of estimated adult deaths due to AIDS, at 240 000 for the year 2012, which added to the number of children aged 0–17 years orphaned due to AIDS, recorded at an estimated 2 500 000 (Ibid). Coupled with these initial medical findings, there was also a growing body of critical research studies that focused on the broader social, personal and economic effects of the pandemic.

definitions further clarify NGOs as associations that are non-religious and non-military.” https://www.investopedia.com/

7 “HIV & AIDS are often used to describe the same condition, however most people who are HIV- positive (HIV+) do not have AIDS. A person with HIV infection is said to have AIDS when his or her immune system becomes so weak it can't fight off certain kinds of infections and cancers, such as PCP (a type of pneumonia) or KS (Kaposi sarcoma, a type of cancer that affects the skin and internal organs), wasting syndrome (involuntary weight loss), memory impairment, or tuberculosis. Even without one of these infections, a person with HIV is diagnosed with AIDS if his or her immune system weakens, as indicated by the number of CD4 cells in his or her blood. If the CD4 cell count is less than 200, the person is given a diagnosis of AIDS. It can take 2 to 10 years, or longer, for someone with HIV to develop AIDS if he or she is not treated. Most people with HIV will not develop AIDS if they start treatment (with medicines called antiretroviral therapy or ART) soon after becoming infected.” https://www.hiv.va.gov 11

These studies, for example, have noted that globally the HIV pandemic mostly affects those with the least agency to control their own lives, making them the most at risk of infection (Fransisca Akala & Jenkins, 2005; Farmer, 1999 & 2010). Akala & Jenkins further showed that the stigmatization attached to HIV & AIDS is the most significant factor leading to people not disclosing their HIV status. Similarly, the 2014 UNAIDS Global Report observed that there are links between high rates of HIV infection in women and violence against women. The report notes that there is growing recognition that women and girls are at a greater risk of, and vulnerability to, HIV infection. These risks and vulnerabilities are often tied to and/or shaped by deep-rooted and pervasive gender inequalities.

There are various socio-economic forces that underpin much HIV vulnerability (Parkhurst, 2013; Auerbach, Parkhurst, & Cáceres, 2011). Despite this structural context, the response to the AIDS pandemic has often been defined by stigma, shame and pity, possibly due to the first case of HIV being reported as infecting a gay man (Akala and Jenkins, 2005). Given this and the immediate subsequent widespread publicity about the infection of some sexually active gay men, HIV was initially widely perceived as a ‘gay condition’ which many conservative religious and traditional communities described as a plague or even a divine curse (Esack & Chiddy, 2009). For many religious and/or traditionally conservative communities, such types of connections have stubbornly persisted, and, along with it, the ‘offence’ of sexual promiscuity and immorality HIV was thus considered as a condition that affects some – particularly the ‘sexually promiscuous’ - especially in religious assemblages (Akala and Jenkins, 2005).

Although HIV infection statistics, demonstrate that the epidemic extends across borders of race, class, gender, sexual orientation and religion (UNAIDS Global Report 2012; 2016 UNAIDS Global Report; 2019 Global HIV & AIDS Statistics- 2019 Fact Sheet) and despite significant biomedical advances in the last few years that have assisted epidemiologists to increasingly understand the condition much better, negative social and religious attitudes have not necessarily dissipated accordingly or at a similar rate. Thus, while annual UNAIDS Global Reports continue to document global progress in understandings of the pandemic and celebrate advancements in medical treatments which has resulted in a remarkable 55% decrease in deaths related to HIV in adults and children (UNAIDS Global Report 2013) since the peak in 2004, with slightly more positive trends of new infections among adults, which are now estimated to have declined by 11% and 16% for the general population between 2010–2018 (UNAIDS 12

Report 2019), the epidemic and its associated stigmas continue unabated in many parts of the world.

Complex social, political and economic factors have been explored in order to explain the failure of diverse types of interventions for HIV prevention and treatment. Since the start of the pandemic 78 million people have become infected with HIV and 35 million people have died of AIDS, and around 30% of the estimated 36.7 million people living with HIV did not know they had the virus (UNAIDS 2016). Warren Parker and Karen Birdshall (2005) show that stigma and discrimination have often been identified as primary barriers to the progress of education, eradication, effective HIV prevention, as well as provision of treatment, care and support to People Living with HIV & AIDS (PLWH&A) across the globe. Lawson et al. (2009); Abrahams (2006) and Parker et al. (2002) have all shown that stigmatization toward HIV & AIDS may be based on or exacerbated by race, gender, religion and culture.

Parker and Birdshall (2005) argue that religion and culture are inseparably bound and together influence the way that people perceive, interpret and respond to the world around them, including the causes of condition. The Commission of Africa Report 2005 further argues that religious institutions are undeniably influential in the lives of people across the globe, and in Africa the vast majority of people practice their faith; either as Christians, Muslims or followers of indigenous traditions. Moreover, religious organizations have played a significant role in the delivery of health care in Sub-Saharan Africa (Wilson, 2008), where HIV has had the most devastating consequences.

0.3 HIV & AIDS in the Muslim World and the South African Muslim Context Within the South African Muslim community, no organization addressed the concerns of Muslims living with HIV. Positive Muslims was one of the first such purpose-specific organizations to be established. Co-founded in June 2000 by a Muslim woman diagnosed as HIV-positive, Faghmeda Miller (1968-), and Kayum Ahmad (1976-), an undergraduate student at the time, together with Farid Esack (1955-) a Muslim Liberation theologian, the faith- inspired NGO Positive Muslims was a pioneering initiative at the time. Although subsequently a few other similar organizations have since emerged or re-branded their advocacy focus towards issues of HIV & AIDS, Positive Muslims during the eleven years of its operations up until its closure in 2011 remained the only serious “Muslim” response to the AIDS pandemic in South Africa. Among the key objectives for establishing Positive Muslims examined in detail 13 in Chapter Four, was to support Muslims living with HIV, spread awareness about HIV & AIDS, do research on the prevalence of HIV in Muslim communities, and develop a progressive Islamic perspective on HIV & AIDS that acknowledges the relationship between health and social well-being (Esack, 2007). These objectives and how they are framed and actuated, are central considerations that inform the focus of this study. I latch on the notion of a “progressive Islamic perspective” and tease its nuances further in the following chapters of this dissertation.8

Muslim communities, like other religious or faith groupings have not responded to the HIV pandemic in any homogeneous way. There have always been differences of opinion and approaches to dealing with the pandemic (Ahmed, 2003). Until the emergence of Positive Muslims, the major response was represented and led by some Muslim scholars, led by Professor Malik Badri9 (1932) from the Sudan. Badri argued that AIDS was, in fact, the wrath of God incurred by the promiscuous sexual revolution sustained by the sexual promiscuity and liberal mores of Western civilization (Badri, 2000). He, and his colleagues, maintained that Islam and its sexual moral guidance - particularly its laws prohibiting sexual intercourse outside marriage - is the answer to prevent and cure the world of AIDS (Ibid.).

Others, like Positive Muslims, have opted for what they then described as more “contemporary progressive Islamic approach” moving away from judgmentalism and toward promoting a deeper understanding of stigmatization, while utilizing a more compassionate approach to illness, sexually transmitted conditions and human vulnerability in Islam (Esack, 2007). Positive Muslims aimed to develop an appreciation of the relationship between personal

8 In the journal article “Progressive Islam – A Rose by Any Name? American Soft Power in the War for Hearts and Minds of Muslims” (2018), Esack articulates a comprehensive and concise historical account and definition of the term “Progressive Islām/Muslim” and introduced the reader to the term “Progressive Light” in an attempt to distance himself from the aforementioned label as was associated to him by others such as Omid Safi in the 2007 publication “Introduction: Islamic Modernism and the Challenges of Reform”; David L Johnston’s 2013 article “What’s Behind the Progressive Reading of the Qu’ran and Sunna?”; and in the book by Adis Duderija The Imperatives of Progressive Islām (2017), as well as to highlight his argument that the use of the terms “Progressive Islām/Muslim” in the aftermath of 9/11 is a microcosm of the soft war being waged by US-led imperialism for the minds and hearts of Muslims. Esack’s article also brings to mind what he terms a “very intense” battle for the term “Progressive Islām” between the Network of Progressive Muslims and the Progressive Muslims of North America, to which he responds with the introduction of the more liberal term “Progressive Islām Lite”. 9 Badri was the leading light in the Islamization of Knowledge project pioneered by Ismail Al-Faruqi and the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). He focused on the “Islamization of the social sciences”, with particular emphasis on Islamizing Psychology. Badri was very popular on the speaking circuit of what was then described as the Islamic Movement. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Leicester, England in 1961. He served as a professor and dean in various universities such as the University of Khartoum and International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization of the International Islamic University, Malaysia. He has published widely in psychology and education and his works have been translated into many languages of the Islamic world. 14 morality and responsibility and the socio-economic conditions which influence these. In its publications, the organization also argued that there are linkages between poverty, gender inequality and the spread and treatment of HIV & AIDS. They argued that the former approach, commonly referred to in the literature as the “Malik Badri Approach” fails to consider the vulnerable. Rather, Positive Muslims claims to have adopted a more humane and less Islamically legalistic and moralistic approach by offering non-judgmental support to all those affected by the condition. Positive Muslims’ theology is a response to issues, such as those possibly overlooked by the “Malik Badri Approach”, and is thus based on reflections of compassion, responsibility and justice.

Positive Muslims as an organization published three educative resources, a booklet entitled HIV, AIDS, & Islam: Reflections based on Compassion, Responsibility & Justice (2004), and two workshop manuals HIV, AIDS, & Islam an Awareness Raising Workshop Manual based on Compassion, Responsibility, and Justice (2006) and another more concise version HIV, AIDS, & Islam, A Workshop Manual based on Compassion, Responsibility & Justice (2007). The booklet, HIV, AIDS, & Islam: Reflections based on Compassion, Responsibility & Justice (2004), serves as a study reader for individuals or groups interested in learning about HIV AIDS, its impact within the Muslim community, and advises on the practical and social responses to the epidemic. By including short personal anecdotes of HIV Positive Muslims with sociological and statistical analysis of the growing epidemic and it’s root causes, the booklet re-directs and educates mainstream communal understandings within the Muslim community of HIV as a disease of sexual impropriety towards an understanding of HIV AIDS as an epidemic which denigrates the poor and most marginalized of society. Authored by Farid Esack, cofounder of Positive Muslims, these informational and advisory booklets were also targeted at religious leaders and organizations in the community by encouraging community leaders to adopt a more compassionate approach and to engage their religious texts and teachings more reflectively since HIV AIDS was understood by many as a punishment from God. Kayum Ahmed in his 2000 article “Developing a Theology of Compassion: Muslim Attitudes Towards People Living With HIV/Aids in South Africa” writes about the terrain at the time regarding the responses toward HIV/AIDS and Muslims as well as responses to People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). In the article, Ahmed (2000), who is a co-founder of Positive Muslims, presents his findings based in readings of material on HIV AIDS and Muslims/Islam as well as interviews with Fagmeda Miller, also a co-founder of Positive Muslims. Ahmed (2000) references the then ground-breaking works of Ashraf Mohammed 15

(1997 & 1999) and goes on to discuss Miller’s experience receiving complaints from HIV+ Muslims at the hand of the Muslim Action Campaign (MAC) that was made up of the Islamic Medical Association (IMA) and the Jamiatul Ulama Johannesburg. Complaints raised negative treatment of HIV+ people and PLWHA. According to Ahmed’s findings (2000) the focus of the MAC approach was not about listening and assisting with compassion, rather according to those who used the MAC Careline service it was a preaching down to and condemning approach. Ahmed (2000) writes that MAC’s approach was not surprising considering the fact that the IMA advocated the “Malik Badri” line when it came to dealing with HIV/AIDS prevention. Ahmed (2000) elaborates that Badri’s Islamic approach to resolving the AIDS crisis is premised on his belief that “AIDS is a punishment from God unto those who have transgressed the sexual mores of Muslim society”, an approach that comes across as being retributive and judgmental, and thus potentially alienating, rather than comforting and merciful, to those seeking for help. Similar teachings were preached from the pulpit and in the madāris (Muslim Schools), and thus it became entrenched in the community and formed part of its culture. Svensson (2014: 96) in his article “God’s Rage: Muslim Representations of HIV/AIDS as a Divine Punishment from the Perspective of the Cognitive Science of Religion” analyses attempts at responses against the retributive approach and response to HIV AIDS, with the Positive Muslim theology of compassion being included in his analysis. He notes that for Muslims the strong connection between the contraction of HIV and AIDS and religiously illicit behaviour renders HIV/AIDS a divine punishment. In reviewing these works of Positive Muslims, it appears that there are two key aims in publishing these informational booklets. Firstly, they seek to create community awareness and educate about the othering or stigmatizing of HIV+ people. Secondly, they are a call to action and to implement an advocacy campaign to respond to People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) with compassion rather than pity and for a faith commitment actioned on justice against poverty and inequality.

Svensson’s 2013 and later 2014 research titled “Islam, HIV-AIDS and Activism - A Critical Analysis of Some Themes in Positive Muslims' 'Theology of Compassion'” confirms that Positive Muslims’ approach via their Theology of Compassion served as a direct response to the established rhetoric, and presented the Muslim community of South Africa, and the world, with an approach to HIV/AIDS that saw and understood God as being the God who cares deeply about all the creation’ (Esack, 2004: 4).

HIV, AIDS, & Islam: Reflections based on Compassion, Responsibility & Justice (2004), introduces the idea of a Theology of Compassion as a religious framework for a non- judgmental and humanizing approach to People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) both in discourse and practice theologically understood as, “a way of reading the Qur’an and understanding the Sunnah (prophetic precedent) that focuses on Allah who cares deeply about all the creation” (Esack, 2004). The Theology of Compassion is elaborated on by Abdul Kayum Ahmed (2003), one of the co-founders of Positive Muslims in his thesis Developing a Theology of Compassion: Muslim Attitudes Towards People Living With HIV/Aids in South Africa. His study analyzed the Muslim community’s response, at that time, to HIV/AIDS in Cape Town and presents a theology of compassion as a holistic alternative. Ahmed critiques the normative response and attitudes of Muslim communities describing them as judgmental and exclusionary and points out the deficiencies of proposing ideals of sexual conservatism within Islam as a preventative method which promotes the idea of HIV positive people as sexual deviants and neglects the realities of Muslims who may already have contracted the disease. Examples of such realities are documented and articled in the three Positive Muslims publications. Ahmed (2003) proposes a theology of compassion as a social responsibility,

“a process that results in the breaking down of barriers between people –between individuals from different cultural and religious backgrounds, between black and white, between those who are HIV positive and those who are not. It is a process that ultimately leads one to realize that we are of them, and they are of us.”

Katherine Davila Wilson in her article Breaking the Silence: South African Muslim Responses to HIV/AIDS and a Theology of Compassion (2008) offers another perspective on the theology of compassion as one of the main distinguishing contributions to the HIV/AIDS scene within the religious sector. Wilson who describes the Theology of Compassion as “an ongoing project that is shaped by the embodied experiences of Muslims living with HIV/AIDS” sees it as the evolution of liberation theology from the post-anti-apartheid era and a contribution to the development of Progressive Islam. This assertion is further exemplified within the publication of HIV, AIDS, and Islam: Between Scorn, Pity and Justice (2009) by Farid Esack and Sarah Chiddy which includes contributions by several authors who reflect on the intellectual, moral and theological challenges arising from this epidemic. Discussions on sin, sexuality, poverty, gender justice, drug addiction amongst other issues are engaged as an attempt to address the theological questions that arise by confronting the widespread global epidemic. The anthology both highlights the influence of the HIV/AIDS crisis in developing progressive religious 17 discourse within the Muslim community while at the same time emphasizing the contribution of this discourse to the HIV/AIDS sector by including the role of religious leaders, communities, and people’s personal faith as a response beyond medical and social services.

In addition to these discursive contributions, Positive Muslims, also developed practical educational tools as part of their workshops. These were under the titles HIV, AIDS, & Islam: An Awareness-Raising Workshop Manual based on Compassion, Responsibility, and Justice (2006) and HIV, AIDS, & Islam: A Workshop Manual based on Compassion, Responsibility & Justice (2007) which sought to practically disseminate these theological and organizational frameworks. The workshops developed by researchers, students, and religious leaders in 2006 were conducted over three days of reflective exercises on HIV/AIDS including facilitation outlines, proposed schedules, and event planning guides. While, Islam: Between Scorn, Pity and Justice (2009) had extensive in-depth writings about issues such as drug addiction, gender justice, same-sex sexuality, and the theology of compassion, the workshops developed by Positive Muslims preliminarily included all of these issues and offered short practical exercises of evaluating case studies or hadith comparison to bring them to a larger audience in a more pragmatic way. In addition, although the workshops taught a theology of compassion, they did not explicitly push progressive theological ideologies around gender, sex, or same-sex sexuality but rather invited or encouraged participants to do the self-reflexive work of gravitating towards compassion in the reflective discussions. The manual and workshop also included sections on sex education, medical advice, and preventative education for community members. In addition to these workshops, Positive Muslims also developed other toolkits such as a guideline for Funeral Protocols for an Islamic burial developed by Abdul Kayum Ahmed and Positive Muslim members that was included in Family Life Education: Teaching Adults to Communicate with Youth published by Family Health International in 2007, a guide for sex education within the Muslim community. In reviewing these works, it is clear that Positive Muslims adopted a multi-faceted and comprehensive educative approach. It attended to the practicalities of dealing with the epidemic on an inter-personal familial level and also on a broader social level as a communal responsibility. These works advanced deeper theological debates within the community, particularly amongst those in religious leadership roles that brought to the fore key issues of social inequalities and notions of justice. Importantly, these works advocated compassion as a central theological premise for dealing with the epidemic.

Positive Muslims, according to Jeanette Westh and Fatima Noordien in their 2008 article “The Positive Muslims’ approach to stigma, HIV, AIDS and PLWH: A theology of compassion translated into non-judgmental support for HIV-positive Muslims in South Africa” was committed to addressing HIV/AIDS in a Muslim context. Westh and Noordien (2008:7) reaffirm that Positive Muslims strived to create an enabling environment for Muslims infected and affected by HIV/AIDS based on a theology of compassion, a theology neither silent nor judgmental about HIV issues. They motivate that this is founded in the organisation’s mission statement that as mentioned earlier, defined the theology of compassion as a way of reading the “Qur’an and understanding the Sunnah, the path of the Prophet Mohammed, that focuses on Allah as a God who cares deeply about all of His creation and who, according to Hadith (Prophetic saying), said at the time of creation, ‘indeed, My mercy overcomes My anger.’”(Westh and Noordien, 2008:7). Such compassion, the organization believed, must be accompanied by a critique of and a challenge to a society that marginalizes people (Westh and Noordien, 2008).

Positive Muslims, and its members, published resources such as the pamphlets, workshop manuals, members’ articles, theses, chapters in books and conference proceedings and presentations. This reflects both an attentiveness to HIV-positive members of the community by providing support to HIV-positive people and also creating a discursive space for community engagements with broader social justice issues. According to Svensson (2013:91) the organization received international attention for its response to HIV & AIDS in the framework of a Theology of Compassion.

The expression ‘theology of compassion’ is probably one of the most impactful notions emerging from Positive Muslims’ published resources and its founder Farid Esack (Anonymous 2009: 6–7; Kamali 2009: 84–6). ‘A way of reading’ signals a recurring theme; a pluralist approach to interpretation of Islam. A similar statement is made in a 2007 manual. For example, participants in the workshops were expected to: ‘learn about an Islamic approach to HIV, AIDS and related issues’ (Positive Muslims 2007). The stated acceptance of diversity is combined with more subtle claims to a privileged position for the ‘theology of compassion’. The theology of compassion as ascribed to Professor Farid Esack, described as a key figure within progressive Islam, which shares much with liberation theology in its emphasis on social justice and an insistence of keeping a close link between text and context (Westh and Noordien 2008:8). 19

3. Research Rationale The Theology of Compassion introduced by Positive Muslims as their response to a pandemic firstly afflicting their community and secondly the broader world of those infected and in solidarity with them is one that interests me. The overarching aim of my research study is to analyse the discursive trajectory of Liberation Theology within the specific context of the global HIV & AIDS pandemic and the emergence of Positive Muslims in South Africa as a faith response to the social effects of that pandemic. Although my study is limited to interrogating the key role players within the organization, it is also focused on the broader socio-economic climate and prevailing intra-Muslim discourses wherein the organization was initially formed and subsequently dissolved. By focusing on these aspects, in particular, I hope to thread together the complex dynamics of religious ethics, converging ideologies, organizational formation and the individuals that helped create and give shape to the structures of Liberation Theology in South Africa.

The theology of compassion that informed and shaped Positive Muslims is the focus of this dissertation. Liberation Theology, which is at times presented as the foundation of, and at other times a corollary of, the Theology of Compassion, therefore provides the key lens I use to analyze the organization and interpret my set of data gathered from personal interviews with key role players and other related literature. The purpose of the research is, thus, to assess Positive Muslims as an example of a religio-cultural response to HIV that is rooted in a discourse of progressive/liberal Islam10 and will elaborate the basis upon which Positive Muslims reflects a Theology of Compassion. In order to do this, the research will also explore

10 According Adis Duderija (2017), Progressive Islamic thought is best characterized by its commitment and fidelity to certain ideals, values, practices, and objectives that are expressed and take form in several different themes. These themes primarily concern issues pertaining to their “critical” positioning in relation to “(1) the hegemonic economic, political, social, and cultural forces from the Global North, (2) hegemonic patriarchal, exclusivist, and ossified interpretations of their own inherited Islamic tradition, and (3) both the values underpinning the Age of Enlightenment modernity as well as radical forms of postmodern thought. This critique simultaneously challenges both (neo-)traditional and puritan Islamic hegemonic discourses on many issues (including the debates on modernity, human rights, gender equality and justice, democracy, and the place and role of religion in society and politics) and Western-centric conceptualizations and interpretations, embedded as they are in the values and worldview assumptions underpinning the Enlightenment. Commitment to social and gender justice (including indigenous Islamic feminism) and a belief in the inherent dignity of every human being as a carrier of God’s spirit are fundamental to Progressive Muslim thought.” https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/. See Footnote 7 above citing Esack’s article Progressive Islam – A Rose by Any Name? American Soft Power in the War for the Hearts and Minds of Muslims wherein he articulates his departure from the term “Progressive Islam”. 20 the contemporary phenomenon of naming theologies, in both an earlier or classical context where they were often named after the leading thinkers, and more particularly, the South African Islamic context. The aforementioned, however, cannot be done in isolation since its development and application is central to understanding the contemporary Islamic context. Considering how various Muslim articulations of Islam are contending and vying for their own respective ideological–cum-theological agendas and contestations, both historically and presently, this theological –historical landscape is relevant to understanding Positive Muslims’ Theology of Compassion.

4. Research Questions Four primary questions guide this research:

1. Who in Positive Muslims was or were the primary driver/s behind the formulation of its ideological/ theological position and what was the extent of its buy-in by different components of the organization (i.e., Board members, Staff and Volunteers)?

2. On what basis, and how, did Positive Muslims develop this Theology of Compassion? 3. What is the relationship between a Theology of Compassion and an Islamic Liberation theology?

4. What is the religious foundation for the theology?

There are several secondary questions which are related to the above such as the understanding and embrace of both theologies by all members of the organization. Because members of the organization came from diverse backgrounds with diverse interests; that included academics, lay persons, traditionalists, modernists, gender and human rights activists and some who were simply moved by a caring impulse; a leading consideration was to uncover any possible tension and/or irreconcilable differences amongst key role players in how they understood the intersecting care-advocacy-faith commitments. Guided by the comments of Esack & Chiddy (2009) who noted that while the initial impulse of those drawn to assisting those living with HIV was one of pity, it is evident that those at the leadership of the AIDS work in general had agendas which transcended ‘assistentialism’11. These included gender justice, gay rights,

11 For a definition of assistentialism, see Madeleine Adriance, Opting for the Poor: Brazilian Catholicism in Transition, Kansas City, Sheed and Ward, 1986, pp.17-18 (endnote 4, referring to p.14) “Assistentialism […] is a term commonly used in Brazil to denote what people in the United States would probably call the social casework approach to the problem of poverty. It usually consists of giving money, food, used clothing and medical aid to people who are unable to work or whose employment does not provide adequate income to support their needs and / or the needs of their families. 21 economic equality, anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism. And thus, the final set of sub- questions that frames my analysis is: “How did the body of Positive Muslims respond to what its leadership presented as one aspect of liberation theology? And was the lack of a full or even a partial embrace, thereof possibly – and tangentially - a contributory factor for the organization’s closure?”

4 Research Methodology

This research undertakes a discursive analysis of the characteristics, praxis, beliefs and theology of Positive Muslims as a particularized form of Liberation Theology, and thus its methodology partly falls within the scope of a descriptive research study. However, it also applies a critical lens and is therefore also based on a qualitative research framework that relies on reflexivity as both a descriptive and analytical lens. It includes some quantitative research elements as well. Therefore, in considering these objectives, it adopts a multi-lens approach and applies a variety of interpretive methods and techniques to suit the various sources and facilitate its intended research outcomes.

According to Creswell (2013), in academic research there are primarily three general categories for research design. The first is qualitative research which allows the researcher to collect observations and ascribe clarifications based on the general themes or trends. This is an approach for the exploration of individual meaning to phenomena. The major objective, according to Yin (2009) of this research strategy is to see through the lens of the research participants. Kothari (2004) states that research in such a situation is a function of the researcher’s insights and impressions. Generally, the techniques of focus group interviews, projective techniques and in-depth interviews are used in qualitative research. Creswell (2013) further describes the second approach as qualitative research, which focuses on association through the testing of quantifiable variables. Finally, the mixed methods approach according to Creswell is a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods. This methodology has gained traction in research due to an increased strength of the results with both research

This concept has recently come under heavy attack by progressive Church people who point out the injustice of the whole income structure and who advocate replacing assistentialism with social activism aimed towards a more equitable distribution of […] wealth […]”. To help answer the question ‘what is assistentailism?’ in the case of Liberation theology, and more specifically, Islamic Liberation theology, I refer primarily to the definitions as used by Esack in his various scholarly works as well as tease out its practical applications as part of my analysis of Positive Muslims. 22 strategies working together. This research also makes use of interpretive techniques and takes notes of the debates on some of the limitations of this method. Some scholars argue that generalizations are inevitable in interpretive research while other interpretivists resist attempts at general claims (Williams, 2000; Kincaid, 1996; Guba and Lincoln, 1994). Interpretivism, however, is important to this study because it will help the researcher build ‘personal impressions’ as an observer in the study.

I analyze the published works of Positive Muslims that consists of awareness raising booklets and pamphlets workshop manuals, material, surveys and feedback- qualitatively analyzing the attitudes of the respondents to the key issues raised at the focus group conducted in a Positive Muslims seminar, journal articles and other publications written on HIV & AIDS and organizational responses to HIV & AIDS that mention Positive Muslims, as well as draft questionnaires and/or conduct open-ended interviews with key stakeholders within the organization including various members at management, executive and other levels of involvement with the NGO. As previously stated, the members of Positive Muslims came from diverse backgrounds. My aim is to apply a methodology that can best capture the intersecting and converging discursive nodes across multiple sites.

4.1 Data Collection Procedures, Techniques and Instruments

In addition to reviewing the published works and other printed media of Positive Muslims such as their awareness raising campaign booklets and pamphlets, workshop manuals and material, surveys and feedback forms, as noted above, the primary set of data I use are transcripts of semi-structured interviews conducted with several key role players or stake holders that were associated with the establishment and involved in the operations of Positive Muslims during the period of its existence 2000-2011.

The aforementioned is achieved by surveying what has already been written about Positive Muslims, the news reported in South Africa at the time, and religious public statements that were made at the time. I will examine this by doing a discourse analysis surveying the material produced by Positive Muslims, via their activities relating to education, social awareness campaigns, workshops, manuals and other publications, and analyzing and threading through the feedback received from its members via the interviews undertaken with a sample of their 23 leadership figures. The chapter will conclude with what all of this suggests about the ‘actual’ ideology/theology of Positive Muslims as understood by its leadership.

Other than surveying the material produced by and about Positive Muslims, the following key role players and stakeholders12 in the organization were interviewed - including two of the three founding members. Completed questionnaires were also received from them.

• Kayum Ahmed, one of the co-founders who served on the Executive Committee of the organization throughout its ten-year existence (interviewed 25 September 2019) • Rehana Kader, a former Executive Committee member and the organization’s first Director who served in that capacity for a period of five years (interviewed 02 October 2019) • Ashraf Kagee, a former Executive Committee and Chairperson – interviewed 02 September 2019 • Farahneez Hassiem who served as the organizations Administrator for a period of six years (interviewed 21 September 2019) • Faghmeda Miller – One of the co-founders who also served on the board of the organization throughout its existence (interviewed 26 September 2019) • Fatima Noordien who succeeded Rehana Kader as Director and served as an ex-officio Board Member for a period of two years (interviewed 06 September 2019)

Other than being a co-founder, at various stages, Esack served as Chairperson of the Executive Committee, an ordinary Committee member and for a six-month period as Director of the organization. His ideas and contributions are well documented in his publications and other works written about him and Positive Muslims. I thus decided against including him as a participant in this research.13

Initial contact was established via email and/or via telephonic communication and an interview date and time was set-up by mutual agreement. Respondents were given an option to complete a questionnaire if unwilling or unable to meet up in person (only one of the respondents opted

12 In alphabetical order. 13 For much of the duration of this study, Esack, served as the Co-Supervisor for this dissertation and at the last stage as its Supervisor. I did not deem it ethically prudent to interview him. 24 for this). The tenor and pace of the interviews, although semi-structured and following the format of a prepared questionnaire, were varied in that some respondents were more receptive to prolonged conversational banter than others. Nevertheless, each of the respondents showed eagerness to engage and were forthcoming in their responses. All interviews were voice recorded using a mobile phone application. These recordings of interviews as well as the written responses to the questionnaires were transcribed. The questionnaire (Appendix 1) covered a series of purposefully directed topics such as the origin of the organization, the participant’s role in the organization, the organization’s published works, the objective of the published works, as well as their understandings of the organization’s mission and vision. These were, however, broad enough to remain open-ended to allow respondents to elaborate further and offer their views on a broad range of other related subjects as well. Notably, one of the key role players and co-founders of Positive Muslims, Esack, is also my supervisor for this research thesis. In consideration of how this relationship and association might possibly influence and/or compromise the integrity of not only my research findings but also affect our student-researcher dynamic, I opted not to conduct a personal interview with him, instead relying on his extensive writings on and about Positive Muslims and scholarly and other public engagements on the issue of HIV & AIDS within the Muslim community.

This range was regarded as adequate for the purposes of this study. A more comprehensive study of the organization’s life, style and ethos would have required interviews with a much larger sample of individuals. This justification notwithstanding, I acknowledge the limitations of confining interviews with people in leadership positions.

0.6.Data Analysis As identified by Brynard and Hanekom (2006), when embarking on a mixed method approach the data collection methods contain data collection elements such as interviews, open ended questionnaires, surveys and observations. The data collected through the questionnaires will be collated into texts and broad themes from the study will be identified and processed. Reflective analysis of the Positive Muslims publications will help to reflect on the data collected and it will also help in developing the emerging sub-themes from the data. After carefully reviewing my data, I offer a critical analysis of the research questions posed.

0.7 Ethical Considerations 25

Questionnaires were formulated and interviews conducted in accordance with the rules as set out and explained by my supervisors and as administered by the Department of Religious Studies and the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg. (see appendix 2 for sample of informed consent form)

Validity and reliability are important aspects of mixed methods research that rely on the skills of the researcher because researchers are sometimes prone to error. To this end, I rely on both my own written interview notes as well as transcriptions of voice recordings where applicable. I also acknowledge a possible conflict of association, given the close involvement of my thesis co-supervisor to the subject matter. I recognize how this might present itself as a potentially conflicted positioning, thus in fully disclosing this association I also wish to indicate how I have navigated this dynamic by applying a rigorous process of self-reflexivity in how I approach, grapple with and present my research findings to ensure research objectivity.

0.8 Research Structure

My work is structured around four main chapters:

Chapter One: Islam, Muslims and HIV & AIDS The main objective of this research study is to locate a Theology of Compassion as espoused by Positive Muslims, within the broader framework of Liberation Theology. In defining Liberation Theology as a “responsive” form or articulation of faith and praxis, chapter one will serve as a review of the literature within this field of research. The chapter focuses on the following themes: a) Islam and Illness; Muslim Responses to the HIV pandemic; b) Muslims, Islam and HIV & AIDS and c) South African Muslim contributions to wider Islamic discursive terrain including what is referred to as “progressive” Islam. In outlining how I define and use the concepts Theology of Compassion and Islamic Liberation Theology, the aim of this chapter is to help locate Positive Muslims within these broader sets of discourses on liberation theology.

Chapter Two – Locating Liberation Theology - Muslims & the Explicit Naming of Responsive Theologies This Chapter explores Muslim responses to contemporary challenges or crises and discusses how these have led to the formation of various kinds of specifically articulated and adjectivized 26

Islams or approaches to Islam.14 In reviewing the literature on Liberation Theology and its various adoptions by and inflections within the Muslim community as part of an Islamic theological expression, the chapter broadly maps the history of Muslim interpretive practices. I explore the aims and objectives of Liberation Theology and map out how or which Muslims have adopted its praxis. Key points of discussion herein include, dissecting how notions of inclusivism, compassion are understood within Liberation Theology, and thus within the Theology of Compassion.

This chapter focuses on a) the explicit naming of theologies as part of the classical Islamic legacy including its dogma, philosophical, political and theological frameworks; b) The contemporary phenomenon of explicitly naming theologies and how this differs from its articulations in the past; c) The appearance of this phenomenon in South Africa in relation to transnationalism. Specifically looking at how South Africa has been exporting ideology abroad – in particular Esack’s promotion of liberation theology and thus locating Positive Muslims as a praxis of Theology of Compassion.

Chapter Three: The Formation, Objectives and Methodology of Positive Muslims and its Location Chapter Three presents an account of the formation of Positive Muslims, its objectives, operational structure, programs and international reach. This chapter discusses the rationale behind the organization’s articulated approach, gives a brief account of the founding members and key role players within the organization, and outlines some of the activities, relating to education, social awareness campaigns, workshops, manuals and other publications. The chapter examines the following questions a) How was religion employed in Positive Muslims’ programs and how was this received? b) How and to/for whom were their awareness programs targeted at? c) How (or if) did their internal operations reflect their theology and ideology?

Chapter Four: Positive Muslims between a Theology of Compassion and One of Liberation Applying a critical lens, chapter four offers my analysis of how the related notions of adjectivized Islam, progressive Islam, Liberation theology, the praxis and articulation of a theology of care and compassion as well as the concepts of assistentialism all coalesce and are

14 I use the term ‘adjectivized Islam’ to draw a distinction between textual and practical approaches to Islam 27 threaded through in varying ways throughout the organizational and operational framework of Positive Muslims. In my analysis, I pay attention to the overt indications of these different threads, but I also interrogate instances where these aspects were absent, and where these ellipses are important and central to the overall conclusions I arrive at.

Conclusion After presenting my findings on some of the challenges and successes of Positive Muslims, and documenting the historical trajectory of their emergence and offering critical reflections on how this particular articulation and praxis of Liberation Theology unfolded within the context of South Africa and the HIV & AIDS pandemic, in the final chapter I draw some tentative conclusions based on this research’s findings in relation to the study objectives. The final analysis critically reflects on the reasons for the demise of Positive Muslims and their relationship to issues raised in this study. It also offers specific recommendations for possible future research on related subject matters.

CHAPTER ONE

HIV & AIDS, Islam and Muslims

1.1 Introduction

My research topic deals broadly with the concept of Liberation Theology, with a specific focus on how that theological framework encompasses and applies the notion of compassion as one of its central features. Locating the notion of a Theology of Compassion within the underlying structures and guiding frameworks that informed the establishment of Positive Muslims in South Africa, chapters One and Two aim to do two things. Firstly, Chapter One, provides a broad outline of the timeline of the discovery of the HI Virus to its global pandemic spread. I consider, in particular, the ways in which the pandemic was received and perceived on the African continent as well as within Muslim majority countries in the Middle East and elsewhere. I thereafter present an overview of the epidemic in Southern Africa. My aim, herein, is to provide a general context of the social norms, attitudes around issues of gender and sexuality as well as political and economic factors in which the HIV pandemic developed in South Africa and the circumstances that led to the establishment of Positive Muslims. This context is critically important to map out, if the notion of how and why a theology of compassion was considered central to the formation of Positive Muslims, and to understand this importance within that particular time frame and within that particular social and religious context. The second aim will be dealt with in Chapter Two, which is to provide a review of the literature on Liberation Theology and its specific articulation within an Islamic framework. In this section I look at how the concept of naming theologies is not unusual; it was, in fact, widely adapted by Muslim scholars both in South Africa and abroad. In reviewing this aspect, I hope to demonstrate how this framework found expression through the establishment of Positive Muslims specifically and within the Muslim human rights activism sector generally.

1.2 The World responds to the HIV pandemic The early 1980’s marks the period of discovery of the HI virus according to Raymond A. Smith (2005). The initial five years after discovery of the virus was characterized by a general sense of panic, fear and misunderstanding about the condition. However, it was also a period that marked remarkable and rapid scientific advances around the condition (ibid). It was during this time whereby the first instances were recorded, and the catastrophic syndrome identified, 29 including its probable causes and modes of transmission, which consequently led to suggestions of restricting AIDS from being transmitted through sexual contact, blood transfusion, and injection drug use (Jason, & Curran, 1987).

Farouk Amod (2006) reports that in the period between October 1980 and May 1981, the first reports of five young men, all active homosexuals were treated, and their biopsies confirmed as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) at three different hospitals in the Los Angeles, California regions of the United States of America. Each of these five patients had previously developed laboratory-confirmed or current cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections and candida mucosal infections. These would later be recorded as the first cases of the condition that would become known as the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and listed as such in the “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report” of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, USA on 5 June 1981. The guidelines, predicated on thoroughly examined epidemiological patterns, were publicly released in March 1983, when there were only 1,000 known cases of AIDS throughout the United States and before the virus resulting in AIDS was isolated (Smith, 2005). The first 100,000 AIDS cases in the United States were reported over a period of eight years, the second 100,000 cases in a period of only 26 months. By 1996, more than half a million AIDS cases were reported, and one year later, by 1997, an estimated 11.7 million people had died of AIDS since the discovery of the condition that was now a pandemic (UNAIDS Report on Global HIV & AIDS Epidemic, 1998).

Poul Rohleder et al (2009) considers that AIDS has been one of the defining challenges of our time. They however also argue that it is the African continent that has been impacted more than others. They base this assessment on the fact that as a continent it bears the global burdens of a region wherein wealth is the least and human systems are the frailest. Moreover, in South Africa this burden is felt most acutely. In 2009, for example, there were an estimated 5 to 6 million people living with HIV & AIDS in South Africa. This was further compounded by systematic political maladministration of dealing with the epidemic, and the early years of the country’s presidentially instigated forms of AIDS denialism. Its disabling impacts are therefore still lingering, even as new political sights are finally bringing more order and hope towards dealing with the epidemic on a national scale. Importantly, no corner of South Africa’s social efforts or investments – from health care to social security, education to the economy, correctional services or the judiciary has escaped AIDS and its effects. The denialism of AIDS in the early stages was a phenomenon notable throughout much of Africa. For example, in 30

Kenya when AIDS was first introduced it was presented as a condition of foreign origin (Ayanga, Hinga, Kubai & Mwaura, 2008). According to them, it was not viewed as a serious threat to the overall population, rather it was dismissed as a condition that primarily affected men with “perverted sexual behaviour”. In other words, the general perception was to link the condition with men with homosexual behaviour, and then to link or dismiss that behaviour as being a result of corrupt Western influence. The association of AIDS with homosexuality was not uncommon and therefore it was also easily dismissed and/or stigmatized as being a result of poor behavioural choice and improper sexual activity rather than an affliction or health issue.

This dismissive attitude was noted not only in the Southern and Eastern parts of Africa but also in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region alike (Kaoru Yamaguchi, 2011). The Muslim-majority countries (MMCs) have long considered their lifestyles or social norms to be informed by conservative or strict religious dictates. They, therefore, considered their own societies to be free of the HIV & AIDS epidemic. In locating the condition as being only contractible as a result of risky behaviours including sexual activities outside marriage, drug use, and homosexuality (Ibid), and in considering these social activities to be something located outside of a conservative and/or religiously prescribed social norms, it was easy to see how and why such types of dismissive attitudes prevailed during the initial years of the epidemic. In fact, such attitudes may have found support and thus perceived as being true for many years, due to a lack of data collection and reporting from the region since the emergence of the first discovery of HIV. However, Abu-Raddad, et al. (2005) argued that this was not a valid speculation. They held that although the region was previously considered to be protected from HIV & AIDS largely due to what is presented as strict Islamic religious and cultural norms in the society, scholars at the same time had already remarked that MENA countries, too, faced the risk of HIV spread within the general populations, and they also cautioned against the risks of inaction at an early stage of the epidemic (Abu-Raddad, et al., 2005; Hasnain, 2005; The World Bank, 2005). Importantly, the association of AIDS with homosexuality was proven to be false by the end of 1982 as more cases of HIV-related immune deficiency were reported among non-homosexual people both within and outside of the U.S. The condition had spread from region to region, and country to country at such an overwhelming pace and scale that after four years since the initial finding of the first incidents of HIV & AIDS, the number of reported cases had already multiplied up to 17,000 from 71 countries around the world by 1985 (WHO, 1985).

Thus, what at first seemed to be an insignificant incident or an easily dismissible discovery, the spread of HIV literally seemed to consume and eviscerate large populations of the entire world at a rapid speed that, in fact, now there is no single country that is not affected by the condition today. As of 2007, more than 25 million people had died of HIV-related causes, and there were an estimated 60 million people who had been infected with HIV worldwide since the emergence of the condition (Merson, O’Malley, Serwadda, & Apisuk, 2008). According to the research conducted by WHO (2011), approximately 34 million people were living with HIV as of 2010, and 2.7 million of whom were newly infected with HIV in the same year.

This timeline and the statistics reflected during this particular time frame is an important consideration to hold, since it has a direct bearing on the time period wherein the subject of my research study was first established. The year 2000 marks the establishment of Positive Muslims, an NGO established in Cape Town, South Africa. As a pioneering innovative advocacy organization in the field of HIV & AIDS, it is important to note firstly, the staggering statistics of the epidemic that was reported at that time and the fact that there was no precedent within the Muslim community in dealing specifically with the social and human rights issues related to HIV & AIDS.

1.3 Religion, Illness & HIV & AIDS

In the 2009 widely disseminated book Islam and AIDS: Between Scorn, Pity and Justice (Farid Esack & Sarah Chiddy), Peter Piot, then the Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations wrote in the foreword that at UNAIDS they believe in the important role that religious communities and faith-based organizations must play in responding to AIDS. This position is supported by Parker and Birdshall (2005), who as pointed out in the introduction of this thesis, argued that religion and culture are fundamentally interlinked and thus regulate how individuals experience, perceive, interpret and react to the world around them, including what they perceive to be the origins of the condition. In agreement, Davila K Wilson (2008) also noted how religious organizations have played a significant role in the delivery of health care in Sub-Saharan Africa where HIV has had the most devastating consequences.

Beverly Haddad (2011) summarizes Piot’s five main reasons, why religion has an important role in the lives of its followers, 1) Religion features high as priority in many societies, and its 32 followers seek guidance from their religious leaders when afflicted with crisis, or as Piot puts it “unfathomable events” such as illness and disease, the expectation is for the religious leader to provide some explanation for what is happening or as Haddad points out “provide a framework for dealing with it”; 2) Religious institutions serve as centers of education and thus religious leaders are respected as educators, they have the opportunity of access and interaction with the constituents at least once a week, if not more, which Piot and Haddad argue is not achieved by activists, academics or politicians; 3) The AIDS pandemic brought with it several serious challenging encounters relating to problems like illness as godly vengeance or grace and refinement, taboos, restrictions and silence concerning sin, sex and sexuality. Religious thinker and theologians, according to Piot, were compelled to engage and raise what this suggests for their traditions, and what these traditions mean for AIDS; 4) A significant portion of all AIDS care is provided by religious groups; and finally, 5) several people living with or suffering from HIV & AIDS have strong religious beliefs.

Many people living with and or impacted by HIV & AIDS report that the primary thought that occurred to them was to “run to God” and demand to understand “what sin they essentially committed”. Others found abundant comfort in their religious beliefs and faith community (Esack and Chiddy, 2009).

Considering Piot’s five points, it is evident why he vigorously supported the UNAIDS approach in bringing science together with religion. He clearly considered it a means to strengthen and deepen the collective response to the pandemic. An example of their implementation of this is that in 2008 they held a consultation in Geneva with faith-based organizations and partners to reach new levels of effectiveness in addressing HIV & AIDS. Recognising the importance of religion and culture as an integral part of people’s lives, is further noted by the fact that UNAIDS in 2008 had approximately sixty Partnership Officers, both at a local and international level, working with regional and national interfaith networks, religious leaders, and NGOs with religious affiliations working with people living with and affected by HIV & AIDS, work often done in rural and remote communities where the service delivered is their only hope.

PLWH&As are often noted for their experiences of spiritual crisis or increased sense of self reflexivity. They often question the reasons for their affliction, whether such is an indication or reflection of the absence and/or failure of God’s love and mercy coupled with intense 33 feelings of self-recrimination and questioning their own part in perpetuating or inviting in the affliction unto themselves, such as through acts of sin or failure to conform with religious dictates. PLWH&As are often riddled with angst, guilt and confusion; thus, the condition is seen as retribution for personal shortcomings and failures. In other words, they question whether they have sinned or are they just unlucky or is the condition a form of punishment from God (Moji, 2003). For example, Isabel Apawo Phiri (in Phiri et al, 2005), a professor of African Theology at the School of Theology and Religion at the University of KwaZulu Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, and the general coordinator for the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians recalls her own spiritual sufferings in an article titled HIV & AIDS: An African Theological Response in Mission. The account reflects upon the gathering at her home of women who called themselves “Women of Faith”, who gather on the first Saturday of every month to discuss issues that affect women in the church and society. The group’s mission and work, she says, is guided by scriptural inspiration founded in the mission of Jesus as described in Luke 4:18-19.

As participants in God’s mission, we equip ourselves with knowledge of what is happening in our churches and societies so that our responses may be contextual. On 6 March 2004, we chose to talk about HIV & AIDS and African women. One of us passionately argued that we need not worry about being infected with the virus, because as long as we remained faithful to our husbands and prayed for our protection, God was going to hear our prayers and protect us from the virus. (Phiri et al, 2005)

Phiri speaks about how the HI-virus is equated with punishment from God for the disobedient.

Yet within our group there was one woman who had shared with us that she was living with the HI Virus, which she got while she was already a committed Christian and faithful wife. Her husband died in 2002 of AIDS and she lamented over why her husband did not disclose his status soon enough to take advantage of availability of anti-retroviral therapy in South Africa as she has done. She also told us how every day she wakes up at 4.00 in the morning to go to her Pentecostal church to pray for healing. The discussion of this day left us divided in our responses to HIV & AIDS because it raised deep issues that required a theological reflection that is contextual to the continent of Africa; ecumenical in nature and dealing with the problems of African women. The central theological issue that the women battled with was: “Why do human beings suffer and how does one conduct mission in the context of suffering?” While it was clear to the women that our role is to participate in God’s mission to the oppressed and the poor of our communities so that all people can experience the presence of God’s reign here on earth, which is also yet to come, questions were raised around the status before God of people who are already infected. If one believes strongly that HIV & AIDS is a punishment from God for the disobedient, then what kind of mission is directed to the infected? Is HIV & AIDS a punishment from God or is suffering necessarily a result of sin? Does God use HIV & AIDS and suffering to bring people to God-self? Why does God allow the faithful partners, who are committed to prayer, to get infected? Is there room for the justification of unjust systems that cause people to suffer unnecessarily? Why is there still stigma among the people of God towards 34

people with HIV & AIDS? Can faithful married women protect themselves from the virus? Why do some people get infected and not others, yet they are all praying to God for protection? Is there hope for the infected and affected of HIV & AIDS? (Phiri et al, 2005)

Positive Muslims, in their publications present many examples of Muslim beneficiaries of their service’s struggle with dealing with their experiences of spiritual crisis in response to their community’s reaction to the news of their HIV status. Muslims, and probably people of other faiths, had similar experiences much like Phiri’s reflections articulated above. Human beings are universal in their emotional attachment to their faith, and one may thus also conclude that they are also universal in their responding to illness with fear and anxiety.

1.4. Islam and Illness Islam is the youngest of the world’s major religious traditions belonging to the Abrahamic family of faiths. Its main scripture, the Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in 7th century Arabia, more than 1400 years ago. Presently, Islam has a following of over a billion adherents referred to as Muslims that are spread across almost every continent around the world.15 Notably, within the two centuries following Muhammad’s death, Muslims had established vast empires that stretched from the Atlantic to the plains of China (Waugh, 1999). Another noteworthy historical feature of Muslim civilization is that, it had following the death of the Prophet Muhammad almost instantaneously (circa 656) been internally divided. One of the most significant of these divisions has been the split of Islamic followers into Sunnis and Shiites, a division that has lasted to this day. Both sets of followers have constructed sophisticated forms of spiritual practice and differing theological understandings under the banner of Islam. This diversity has contributed to and ensured that a multiplicity of peoples and praxis are encompassed within and therefore make up the global Muslim fold (Ibid). The faith tradition continues to grow at an unprecedented rate, which according to the Pew Forum for Religion and Public Life (2011), the global Muslim population is predicted to increase by 35 percent in the next 10 years to approximately 2.2 billion by 2030. This forecasted growth rate is significant because it exceeds or doubles the rate of the non-Muslim population over the next two decades (ibid).

Considering this exponential growth rate of Muslims since Islam’s inception and the increasingly wider geographical spread of its faith adherents across multiple borders, as pointed

15 http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/muslim-population-by-country/ 35 out by the Pew Forum, the practice of the Islamic faith by Muslims has too become infused with multiple and differing cultural and social practices depending on the differing geographical locations wherein Muslims are located. This multiplicity and diversity are affirmed by Majid A. Ashy (1999) when he states that with the expansion of the Islamic Empire, Muslims encountered different cultures which required a more flexible understanding or leniency so Muslims could co-exist and incorporate the cultural diversities of its locations under an Islamic rubric. This form of assimilation is a concept which is accommodated for within the religion under the concept of `Urf or `Ādah, both terms often used synonymously to mean custom (Kamali, 1997), and is also used interchangeably with the terms tradition, culture, or formal praxis. As pointed out in the introduction of this thesis, Parker and Birdshall (2005) consider religion and culture as inseparably bounded concepts. The historical evidence of Islam and Muslims’ geographical spread and growth rate over the past 1400 years through the adoption of varied forms of `Urf or `Ādah confirms this observation.

I note from the outset that my discussion of Islamic practice focuses on and therefore reflects a perspective of Islamic practice. That is, it reflects where and how I locate my own personal positioning and understanding of Islam as a practicing Sunni Muslim following the Ash’ari ‘Aqīdah (School of Theology) and al-Shafi’ī Fiqh (School of Islamic Law and Jurisprudence). I am nevertheless aware that there are differing views among the various schools of theology as well as varied understandings of Islamic law and jurisprudence including the practical application of laws, its parameters, and matters relating to it. I, however, also note that fundamentally the foundation of the Islamic faith for all Muslims is based on a set of key tenets that unifies and marks as its central beliefs despite variations in other matters.

Islam’s approach to health can be divided into two dimensions; the spiritual health and the physical. Examples of spiritual ill-health would include loss of faith, conversion-related problems, and questioning of faith or values, lethargy and other such notions that place a believer’s faith well-being in a weakened state. On the other hand physical health refers to the well-being of the physical body and mental capacity. This notion is affirmed by Abu-Raiya Hisham and Kennet Pargament (2011) when they highlight the centrality of Islam to the well- being of Muslims and its strong link to every domain in their lives; mental, spiritual, and physical. Ultimately, the synchronicity between both aspects, the spiritual and physical well- being is considered a test or vital aspect of faith vibrancy. According to Gerald West (in Beverly Haddad, 2011) Christianity and Islam are perhaps the clearest on this kind of theology, 36 which he terms a theology of retribution. An idea that the inner vitality of spirit will reflect on the outer or physically, and its reverse, the ill-health or faltering of the one aspect, will manifest upon the other. Kenneth R. Overberg (2006) argues that this kind of theology is rooted in earlier faith and scripture as well, that is in Hebrew thought where the sense that good deeds lead to blessing and evil deeds lead to suffering. Thus, if a person were experiencing sickness or other trials, then that person must have sinned in the past (ibid).

However, Abdulaziz Sachedina (2009) points out that it is impossible to think of Islam in monolithic terms on any theological matter, considering that plurality of belief and practice is inherent in Islam, and that Muslims invest the power of interpretation and decision making in the `ulamā (experts in religious matters). This leads to very diverse views on many matters relating to faith and practice even within a single school of thought. So, the assertion that Islam, like its Abrahamic faith counterparts, can be considered a theology of retribution, is one that needs to be interrogated further. For example, in my own learning of Islam, having been raised in Cape Town, a predominantly Sunni - Shafi’i community, I have been exposed to two varying, but not fundamentally different views on illness and faith in Islam. One `ālim (expert in religious matters) presented it as a punishment and that the afflicted person “needs to reflect” upon their life and “make tawbah” (seeking God’s pardon) for sins committed to facilitate forgiveness and healing, another presented it as a form of purification and an opportunity to, when afflicted be accepting of God’s will, and in doing so be rewarded for one’s patience and endurance, which results in healing in the worldly life, and a raised state in the afterlife. Such variance in understandings and practice is not an anomaly for most Muslims. Noting the diversities and multiplicities of Muslim praxis as mentioned earlier, and how the notion of ‘urf accommodates variances of approach and understandings, it can be positively argued that Muslim attitudes towards how they synchronize inner/ spiritual health with their outer/physical health are not only diverse but oftentimes also conflicting and contradictory. This flexibility, however, is not considered in a negative light, on the contrary it is precisely that which lends Islam to be an adaptable and vibrant faith, even in contemporary times despite its vastly different cultural and geographical locations across the centuries.

Waugh (1999) points out that distinctive religious authorities could and did argue for the beneficence of illness, an argument that he writes, never became widely accepted but which nevertheless caused some people to inspect their lives when illness or misfortune occurred. He, further posits that this view of illness was held principally by Shiites and Sufis, who evaluated 37 each case personally through an inner process of discovering God, and personal spiritual needs (Ibid). Malik Badri (1932-), a Sudanese born psychologist, asserts that AIDS, for example, represents God’s punishment for what he sees as a result of immoral sexual behavior (Badri, 2000). Sanjay Basu (1980- ), like Esack, takes a different approach, moving away from blaming, rather looking at AIDS as a symptom of a much larger condition (Basu, 2003; Becker and Geissler, 2009), which he primarily relates to structural problems in the world. He places responsibility with health officials and public figures, like Badri, who attempts to end HIV & AIDS in a way that fails to address these issues. Basu, in doing so, places it at the door of larger social structures, moving away from the retribution argument, or blaming the individual argument and the stigmatization that may come with that (ibid). The above examples provide a snapshot of how diversely Muslims may draw conclusions and formulate opinions about an issue.

It from this context of multiple viewpoints and contrasting approaches towards how spiritual and physical well-being is reconciled within the Islamic tradition, that I shift focus to discuss Positive Muslims, the organization established in Cape Town in 2000, and central to this dissertation. I discuss hereunder an aspect noted in their mission statement that reflects how they have responded to the notion of retribution as an approach, as well as the aspect of stigmatization that may come with that, when they state that they strive to create an enabling environment for Muslims infected and affected by HIV. Considering that their approach is one based on a theology of compassion, a theology they consider to be neither silent nor judgmental about HIV & AIDS issues, theirs is an approach that can be read as a very particularized understanding of a synchronized spiritual and physical well-being. Their mission statement defines the theology of compassion as a reading of the Qur’an and an understanding of the Sunnah (Prophetic model) that focuses on a God that cares deeply for all His creation.

2.5 Muslim Responses to the Pandemic As mentioned earlier Islam is not monolithic in its response to any theological matter. This is due to the plurality of belief and practice that is inherent in the faith. Thus, it is not strange that Muslims’ responses to the HIV & AIDS pandemic are not uniform. Positive Muslims, in their publication HIV, AIDS and Islam: Reflections based on Compassion, Responsibility and Justice (2004, pp 21-25) list and elaborate on five responses to the HIV & AIDS pandemic found among Muslims, 1) Denial – this does not happen to us; 2) Silence – I know, but do we 38 have to speak about it; 3) Confusion – is it a punishment from Allah?; 4) Rejection – stay away from us!; and 5) Sympathy – what a pity!

1.5.1 Denial – This Does Not Happen to Us

Denialism of the threat and impact of HIV & AIDS for Muslim is rooted in their belief that they remained protected from the condition due to their religious and cultural norms. Much has been written on the high value Islam places on chaste behavior, as well as its prohibition on sexual intercourse outside of marriage, together with its specific prohibitions of adultery, the use of intoxicants, and that of homosexuality, and how this is considered by Muslims to serve as protection against HIV & AIDS. As mentioned in the introduction of this thesis, in the early stages of the discovery of the pandemic, it was presented as a condition discovered in and affecting gay men.

For example, Shabnam Shaikh (2017), quoting Bocci (2013) states that in the past, Muslim scholars often wrote about HIV & AIDS as though it was a condition that was experienced by European and American homosexuals only. She adds that in this way these scholars characterized HIV & AIDS as a non-Muslim condition which they regarded as being a result of the ‘modern sexual revolution.’ With Islam’s prohibition on homosexuality, Muslims thus considered themselves protected. However, this approach overlooked the existence and spread of the condition among them, as pointed out by Memoona Hasnain (2005) and Shaikh (2017), which despite their Islamic teachings indicated that some Muslims do engage in risky behavior that could, and did, lead to HIV infections. This aspect pointed out by Hasnain, is argued away by, for example, Badri (2000), and others, who place the burden of responsibility of the existence of promiscuity among Muslims at the door of the West and or modernity. This response is but just another form of denialism.

Positive Muslims (2004) in their publication mentioned above added that a contributing factor to this denialism is possibly rooted in Muslims’ misguided feeling that acknowledging the existence of something translates as some sort of condoning of it. They add that this approach contradicts the Prophetic edict to speak the truth, though it be bitter, and encourage that in doing so one is able to mitigate a problem before it “gets really big”.

1.5.2 Silence – I Know, But Do We Have to Speak About It? 39

Sexuality in Islam is considered a private matter and generally a taboo topic for discussion. As articulated by Positive Muslims (2004), “Muslim communities are often characterized by a loud silence when it comes to sex”. They add that sex as a taboo or embarrassing subject is the main context that affects any discussion around HIV & AIDS. Added to this, thus, the social stigma attached to HIV & AIDS, which exists in all societies, is much more pronounced in Muslim cultures. Regardless of whether there is a doubt of unlawful sexual conduct, the affected person(s) is at risk of being victimized, marginalized, or renounced by their family, as well as their community as argued by Laura Kelley and Nicholas Eberstadt (2005). Positive Muslims, in their publications, recount many stories detailing such examples. The shame and stigmatization accompanying this, thus silences the person, and consequently averts those in danger from approaching for proper advising, testing, and treatment, as it includes exposure of condemned practices that are denounced by their faith (Hasnain, 2005).

Another form of “silence” is what Kelley and Eberstadt (2005) state that decades after the discovery of the condition some Muslim states still did not have a national HIV programme. This governmental reluctance to address the crisis further impeded by the view that addressing the pandemic in high risk groups implied condoning their behavioral choices. Thus, these persons, during these early stages of the discovery of the condition, saw them being denied medical treatment and or being fired from their places of work (ibid), all of which increases the probability of them being added to the “silenced” group.

Positive Muslims (2004) responds to this with reference to Qur’anic verses and Prophetic edicts that encourage discussion on matters that will assist in the protection of health and life, and discourage shyness in seeking answers. In other words Islam encourages seeking knowledge and having discussions on matters that will ensure the person’s wellbeing. They thus conclude, “we need not feel embarrassed or shy when discussing or reading about sex or about sexually transmitted diseases” (Ibid).

1.5.3. Confusion – Is it a Punishment from Allah?

A quick search on the internet and reading of some of the many publications in recent decades on HIV & AIDS and Islam, yields results of the thread that served as detrimental to the earliest response to, and subsequent research on the pandemic. This was the debate of AIDS being a punishment from God. As referenced previously the retribution argument is not unique to Islam but is commonly found in other Semitic faiths (West, in Haddad, 2011) (Overberg, 2006). 40

Positive Muslims (2004) point out that for Muslims, the response “this must be a punishment from Allah (God)” is often the response when Muslims are faced with some calamity that they cannot explain. They further argue, in acknowledgement that in some cases natural disasters may be a result of human beings’ own actions and a way that God lets us know that He is dissatisfied but adds a disclaimer that this is not the case in every situation. And as previously mentioned in this chapter, PLWH&As are often riddled with angst, guilt, and confusion, thus the condition is seen as retribution for personal shortcomings and failures. In other words, they question whether they have sinned or are they just unlucky, or is the disease a form of punishment from God? (Moji, 2003). Positive Muslims (2004) concludes that while we are unable to differentiate and determine which disasters are natural occurrences or signs of God’s displeasure, we must suspend our judgement in these matters.

1.5.4 Rejection – Stay Away from Us!

For Positive Muslims (2004) the rejection response is rooted in stigmatization. For them stigmatization is based on ignorance and fear, and while they acknowledge that ignorance and fear are understandable and that it is a very human emotion, they argue that people suffer under it, and thus they encourage asking the “hard” questions to become a more informed and humane individual rather than risking the chance of hurting oneself and others (ibid). Sindre Bangstad (2009) agrees that stigmatization is a large problem, and that in the case of HIV & AIDS and the world’s response to it, it forms part of what he terms the “politics of accusation” through which already marginalized people, such as blacks, homosexuals, and the poor are further stigmatized.

Stigma, in relation to HIV & AIDS, is commonly found as an interlinked theme throughout several writings on the topic, attributable to the devastating role it plays within the lives of PLHA and those affected by it, together with the barrier it poses to prevention (McKee et al, 2004). Stigma results from the devaluation of individuals or groups of people who are perceived to be HIV-positive or living with AIDS. Stigma leads to acts of discrimination, which occur when “a distinction is made against a person that results in his or her being treated unfairly and unjustly on the basis of their belonging, or being perceived to belong, to a particular group” (UNAIDS, 2002a). Perceived stigma can have powerful psychological consequences for the victim, leading to depression and feelings of lack of self-worth, which further impacts on the health status of PLHA (UNAIDS, 2002b). 41

Stigma and discrimination can be manifested at different levels and in different contexts: policy and legal, and institutional, for example schools, health care facilities, workplace, community, family, and individual (McKee et al, 2004). For example, being HIV-positive or simply coming from a high prevalence country can result in limitations on international travel and migration or mandatory HIV testing. Children of infected parents have been excluded from collective activities and expelled from school. Another example, as pointed out by Positive Muslims (2004) is that of stigmatization experienced by Muslims, such as that faced by Muslim women wearing the hijab or a Muslim man having a beard. Some people steer clear of them due to their misguided perceptions of linkages to terrorism. As Positive Muslims term it, they are seen as “here is bad news coming” (Ibid).

Stigma is a consequence of the association people make between HIV & AIDS and pre-existing prejudices, shame, blame, and fear related to sexuality, gender, race/ethnicity, and class. HIV & AIDS is associated with sexually transmitted conditions - homosexuality, promiscuity, prostitution, and sexual “deviance” or assumptions about “African sexuality,” as well as drug use and poverty (Kidd and Clay, 2003; Parker et al., 2002). Norman et al (2009), quoting Goffman (1990) states that stigma may be defined as a social process or related personal experience characterized by exclusion, rejection, blame or devaluation that result from either the experience or the reasonable anticipation of an adverse social judgment about a person or group. Thus, stigmatization, which leads to rejection, and subsequent isolation, has more harmful and possibly devastating results for the stigmatized and those who stigmatize.

1.5.5 Sympathy – What a Pity!

Positive Muslims (2004) argue that when we realise that the PLWH&A is an ordinary person, our attitudes toward them change. They put forth the example of Pakistani HIV-positive female who experienced the act of discrimination when a religious leader, without knowing her positive status, said that “all HIV patients should just be shot, that’ll solve the problem”, but after learning of her positive status he approached her to apologize for his statement and behaviour. The argument made by Eisenberg et al (1994) that a possible strategy for improving overall attitudes toward PLWH&A, thus makes sense, especially toward those from already marginalized groups, is to increase the level of sympathy felt for these individuals.

Sympathy can be defined as a feeling of sorrow or anguish associated specifically with the suffering or need(s) of another; it can also be thought of as the act or capacity of entering into or sharing the feelings or interests of another. Sympathy for others may lead to unselfish acts aimed at reducing their distress, which tends to induce prosocial – including helping – behaviors that are intended to achieve the reduction (Batson, Chang Orr, & Rowland, 2002; Batson et al. 1997; Batson, Fultz, Fortencbach, McCarthy, & Varney, 1986; Eisenberg et al., 1994; Sober & Wilson, 1998). Increasing sympathy and sympathy-induced altruism can lead to improved attitudes toward stigmatized groups. By “feeling” what a stigmatized person feels, the sympathetic individual may become more supportive of the situation in which stigmatized persons find themselves (Batson et al., 2003).

Positive Muslims concludes that feeling sorry for someone is obviously much better than any act that may cause them harm. However, it is not to be presented in a patronising pitiful way, since this simply minimises the person to victimhood. They thus encourage that sympathy must be accompanied with compassion, which is the ability to feel the same pain and joy as the other person, “seeing in HIV-positive people an opportunity for oneself to become a better person.”

CHAPTER TWO

Muslims Confronting Theological Challenges and the Explicit Naming of Responsive Theologies

2.1 Introduction

This chapter expands upon the concepts introduced in chapter one by exploring Muslim responses to historical and contemporary challenges or crises. The objective in this chapter is to examine how certain responses have informed particular theological expressions or influenced specifically articulated adjectivized Islams and /or approaches to Islam16. In developing this chapter, I begin by firstly defining Islamic theology and, in a limited manner, also chart its historical developments. In doing so, I hope to expound on the notion of “responsive theology” as an explicitly named and purposefully formed articulation of faith and praxis by Muslims in response to a crisis or particular challenges, both historically and currently. This discussion will provide a broader historical framework to help situate and contextualize the emergence of Positive Muslims’ Theology of Compassion as a form of adjectivized Islam that articulated a theological response to a particular crisis that Muslims faced.

2.2 Locating Theology in Islam/ for Muslims: Islamic Traditional Account on the Development of Theology According to Fazlur Rahman (1984:13), when one studies the Qur’an intently as the record of revelatory experience, and with that, surveys the presentation of Muhammad as a religious leader, one cannot fail to see the inner unity and an indisputable clarity shown in the Prophet’s action and Qur’anic guidance. What this means is that Muhammad’s presence during the first generation of Muslims’ lives also meant that those around him had access to direct answers, either via divine inspiration or through his action, speech and tacit approval. The development of Muslim theology, according to Macdonald (2006:121), could not begin until after the death of Muhammad in 632 CE. For as long as he lived and received infallible revelations as a solution to any questions related to the faith there was no immediate need for a systematic form of theology during this time. Added to that, in the first twenty to thirty years subsequent to

16 I use the term “adjectivized Islam” to differentiate between Islam as a textual archive of Muslim faith expressions and Islam as a practiced faith of Muslims. 44

Muhammad’s passing on, Muslims were mainly occupied with the propagation of their faith and did not attend to matters specifically articulating what that faith exactly was (Ibid. p. 122). Thus, according to Macdonald (Ibid. p.123) it seems that the questioning spirit of Muslims was aroused comparatively late and had remained for some time, what he considers to be on a “private basis”. Individuals held their own independent views, and although sects did not necessarily arise, when they did, they were vague and hard to define in their positions (Rippin, 1994; Williams, 1994; Winter, 2009). Williams (1994) argues that the earlier generations of Muslims often preferred to do without theology altogether, and adds that there is no orthodoxy in Islam, nor is there a word for it in Arabic. From this, he concludes that theology has always come after law and mysticism in importance (Ibid). This may be understood as it being sufficient for a Muslim to believe in God and accept that Muhammad is the messenger of God and follow the remaining pillars of the Islamic faith which serves as the bedrock of their faith. Some have argued that for the early Muslims, orthodoxy was not as important when compared to what one does, thus orthopraxy has been what Muslims were mostly concerned with (Halverson, 2010; Knudsen, 2003; El-Menouar, 2014). This orthopraxy of Islam can be seen in at least three of the Five Pillars of Islam. For example, in the ṣalāh, in the fasting during Ramaḍān and in the performing of the ḥajj, which are all practical expressions of Muslim faith. While the Five Pillars and the Sharī’ah have consistently remained the common basis of faith and practice for Muslims, at the same time, Muslims have also incorporated variations of beliefs and activities that emerged from their religious and historical experiences and in response to some of their specific needs and political expediencies as they began developing into various communities as the faith that eventually spread across the world, and expanded into a faith of influential civilizational impact.

“Approximately thirty years after the death of Muhammad, the Ummah (Muslim community) found itself divided into discernible tendencies; a) The majority of the believers, the Sunnis17, that is, the partisans of the Sunnah (the "practice"," the "tradition"

17 “Sunni Muslims are considered members of one of the two major branches of Islam. They are also considered the branch that consists of the majority of that religion’s adherents. They regard their practice as the mainstream and traditionalist branch of Islam—as distinguished from the minority denomination, the Shiʿah. They recognize the first four caliphs as the Prophet Muhammad’s rightful successors, unlike the Shiʿah who believe that Muslim leadership belonged to Muhammad’s son-in- law, ʿAlī, and his descendants. In contrast to the Shiʿah, the Sunnis have long conceived of the polity established by Muhammad at Medina as an earthly, temporal dominion and have thus regarded the leadership of Islam as being determined not by divine order or inspiration but by the prevailing political realities of the Muslim world. This led historically to Sunni acceptance of the leadership of the foremost families of Mecca and to the acceptance of unexceptional and even foreign caliphs, so long as their rule afforded the proper exercise of religion and the maintenance of order. A majority of Sunni jurists 45

of Muhammad), under the leadership of the reigning caliph; b) the Shi'ites18, faithful to the lineage of `Ali, the leader who they believe should have been the first "true" caliph, and c) the Kharijites19 ("Secessionists"), who held that only the community has the right to elect its leader, and thus also has the duty to depose him if he is guilty of grave sins20 (Hiltebeitel and Apostolos-Cappadona, 1988). Two of these tendencies remain firmly established and now reified as sects while the other has diminished over time. Each of these parties contributed, however great or small, to the development of Muslim religious institutions, theology, and mysticism (Schmidtke, 2016).

Many scholars, historians and academics have written about the history of Islam as well as its theological developments. The dominant Muslim narrative is the Sunni one, as previously mentioned, which holds that the period immediately following Muhammad’s death, from 632 to 661, is known as that of the "rightly-guided caliphs" under the leadership of the closest Companions of Muhammad; Abu Bakr Abdullah ibn Ùthman (632-6344), ‘Umar ibn Al- Khattāb (634-644), Ùthman ibn Affan (644-656) and his cousin, Àli ibn Abi Talib (656- 661). Abu Bakr was mostly occupied in suppressing the uprising of certain tribes against the accordingly came to articulate the position that the caliph must be a member of Muhammad’s tribe, the Quraysh, but devised a theory of election that was flexible enough to permit that allegiance be given to the de facto caliph, whatever his origins. The distinctions between the Sunnis and other groups regarding the holding of spiritual and political authority remained firm even after the caliphate ceased to exist as an effective political institution in the 13th century. Sunni orthodoxy is marked by an emphasis on the views and customs of the majority of the community, as distinguished from the views of peripheral groups. The institution of consensus (ijmāʿ) evolved by the Sunnis allowed them to incorporate various customs and usages that arose through ordinary historical development. The Sunnis recognize the six “sound” books of Hadith (Saḥīḥ Sittah), which contain the spoken tradition attributed to Muhammad. The Sunnis also accept as orthodox four schools of Islamic law: Ḥanafī, Ḥanbalī, Mālikī, and Shāfiʿī. In the early 21st century the Sunnis constituted the majority of Muslims in all countries except Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, and perhaps Lebanon. They numbered about 900 million in the early 21st century and constituted a majority of all the adherents of Islam.” (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sunni) 18 “Shi'ites are the smaller group of the two main Muslim sects. They are those who hold that Àli ibn Abi Talib, the cousin and son in-law of the Prophet Muhammad should have been his immediate successor. A small group with the sect believes that the Prophet ordained this to be so. Others, however, maintained that with Muhammad’s death the link between God and humankind had ended and the community was to make its own way forward.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shii) 19 The Kharijites are the “third party” in Islam. Although minimal in number today they played a great role in the history of the development of theology in Islam. (Encyclopaedia of Religion) 20 Grave/ Major sins (al-kabā’ir) are defined as what is forbidden by Allah and Muhammad, in the Qur'an and the Sunnah respectively, in addition to what is narrated on the authority of early Muslims. Based on the Prophetic saying of Muhammad (ḥadīth) as reported in the Saḥīḥayn (the two major books of ḥadīth, Bukhārī and Muslim) “Avoid the seven heinous sins: Worshipping others with Allah, sorcery, taking a life which Allah has made sacred except in the course of justice, devouring usury, appropriating the property of the orphan, fleeing from the battlefield, and charging believing women, unmindful though innocent, with adultery”, it is concluded that the major sins are seven. However, the Companion of the Prophet (Ṣaḥābah), Ibn Abbās, argued that they likely counted seventy, and not seven, since it is any sin entailing either a threat of punishment in the Hereafter explicitly mentioned by the Qur’an or ḥadīth, a prescribed legal penalty (ḥadd), or being accursed by Allah or His Messenger. (Cooke, Francis T. 1938. Sins and their Punishment in Islam. The Muslim World. 28(3), 272-278) 46

Medinan political system. Under 'Umar an impressive expansion took place; Syria and Egypt were gained from the Byzantine Empire and Iraq from the Persian (Macdonald, 2006; Cooke, 1980 & 1981; Rippin, 1990; Haleem, 1996; Halverson, 2010). For the first half of the reign of Ùthman expansion continued into North Africa and Persia; but about 650 it slowed down, discontent appeared among the groups and in 656 'Uthman was killed by protestors against his rule (Macdonald, 2006). 'Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, was then acclaimed as caliph in Medina, but Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan (661-680), the governor of Damascus appointed by his kinsman, Ùthman, among others, refused to recognize Àli’s leadership (Rippin. 1990). In the struggle between Àli and Mu'awiyah the latter was slowly gaining the upper hand when in 661 Àli was martyred for a private grievance. Mu'awiyah's caliphate was then generally recognized, and the Umayyad dynasty thereby established (Ibid). All the expansion and growth brought with it exposure to people of other faiths who were the majority in comparison with their new ruler, with some of these indigenous people converting to Islam thus growing the faith’s followers in its numbers (Cooke, 1980). Hiltebeitel and Apostolos- Cappadona (1988) maintain that Islamic theology, therefore, emerged during a multi-religious setting within which a Muslim ruling minority was troubled to assert itself, politically as well as religiously.

According to Williams (1994:140) fundamentalists have held that faith needs no rational interpretation or discussion, a position he argues originated from the time of Ahmad ibn Hanbal21 (780- 855) who rebuked any matters of discussions of faith. Williams further contends that Ibn Hanbal was reacting to the debates on faith circulating among the first generation of Muslims, particularly at Basra in the circle of the ideologue important in Islamic theological development, Hasan al-Basri (642- 728) (Ibid). During this era both Law and Theology were included in the term “fiqh”, with Fiqh al-`Ilm used for Law, and Fiqh al-Din used for theological doctrine (Ibid). Rippin (1990), Winter (2008), Williams (1994) and other commentators offer a very concise, yet comprehensive idea of how Islamic theology

21 “Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Ḥanbal Abū Àbdallāh al-Shaybānī al-Marwazī (164–241/780–855), also known as Imām Aḥmad or simply as Aḥmad, is the eponym of the Ḥanbalī school (madhhab) of law and theology and the most significant exponent of the traditionalist approach in Sunnī Islam. Numerous traditions that he transmitted to his disciples were compiled by his son Àbdallāh b. Aḥmad into one of the major Ḥadīth collections, al- Musnad. Imam Aḥmad’s unique personality and everyday conduct endowed him with the nimbus of a renunciant (zāhid), who instilled moral standards of behaviour in a growing circle of disciples. His adherents in later generations were named Ḥanābila (sing. Ḥanbalī). Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal’s profound influence on almost every area of Sunnī Islam continues to this day.” (Holtzman, Livnat. 2010. Ahmad ibn Hanbal. ResearchGate https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299276832) 47 developed. They argue that the first four centuries of Islamic theology had been vibrant with ingenuity with the entire edifice of the subject being created during this time. This included its innovative vocabulary and idiosyncratic hermeneutic methods. They add that by the time of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111), another important figure in the development of Islamic theology, the basic paradigms were well established, and kalām (scholastic theology) was rivalling, or rather surpassing, falsafa (philosophy) in intellectual eminence. The beginning of theology at the start of these four centuries witnessed the Kharijites, who held a strict activist position that all who do not profess total adherence to the Islamic precepts are unbelievers, and that those who transgress are considered targets for the Islamic jihād (holy war) against all non- believers. Belonging to the community of Islam, provided protection from such attacks (Rippin, 1990). A second group, the Murji’iyyah22 adopted a conservative position, and argued that those who appeared not to be following the outward precepts of Islam must still be accepted as Muslim for only God knows their true religious state (Ibid). A third and fourth group mentioned by Rippin (1990) are the Traditionalists and the Qādariyyah.23 The Traditionalists who were generally being connected with the key figure of Ahmad ibn Hanbal posited the position that is found in the works of Ibn Hanbal and Abu Ùbayd (d. 838), that there were degrees of being Muslim: deeds do count towards one’s status in the community although one can still be a believer and commit sin, thus there is what they deemed levels of, or degrees of faith. Ibn Hanbal is said to have summarised his position as faith consists in verbal assent, deeds and intention, and adherence to the Sunnah, and that faith increases and decreases (Rippin, 1990:77-78; Leaman, & Winter, 2008:53). This period also witnessed at its beginning the Mu’tazilī24, which stemmed out of the political protest party, the Qādariyyah, becoming

22 “The Murji’iyyah is one of the earliest Islamic sects to believe in the postponement (irjāʾ) of judgment on committers of serious sins, recognizing God alone as being able to decide whether or not a Muslim had lost his faith. They took an opposing view of that of the Kharijites regarding the professing of faith in that they believed no one who once professed Islam could ever be declared (kāfir) an infidel. They came into existence flourished during the turbulent period of Islamic history that began with the killing if the Caliph `Uthmān in ad 656, and ended with the assassination of the fourth Caliph, ʿAlī in 661, and the subsequent establishment of the Umayyad dynasty. They are known to be moderates and liberals of Islam, who emphasized the love and goodness of God and labelled themselves ahl al-waʿd (the adherents of promise).” (Encyclopedia Britannica https://www.britannica.com/topic/Murjiah) 23 “The Qadariyyah is considered one of the oldest Muslim Sufi orders. The order was founded by the Ḥanbalī theologian ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī (1078–1166) in Baghdad. The order, which stresses philanthropy, humility, piety, and moderation, is loosely organized, allowing each regional community to develop its own ritual prayers (dhikrs).” (Encyclopedia Britannica https://www.britannica.com/topic/Qadiriyah) 24 “Muʿtazilah in Islām, refers to political or religious neutralists. By the 10th century, however, the term became noted to refer specifically to an Islāmic school of speculative theology that flourished in Basra and Baghdad (8th–10th centuries AD). The name first appears in early Islāmic history in the dispute over ʿAlī’s leadership of the Muslim community after the murder of the third caliph, ʿUthmān 48 politically dominant, emphasising the significance of reason in discussing religious issues. The Mu’tazilah are known for the perfection of the art of theological speculation in Islam in the form of kalām – the dialectical style of discussion where objections are put forth and then the response (Rippin, 1990:79). It was through this means that this group argued their position, one that was based around the dual principal of the justice and unity of God (Ibid.), with all their arguments based on the use of reason and argumentation. Rippin (1990: 80) and Leaman (2001:108-109) argue that while the Qur’an had its place in the discussions and arguments of the Mu’tazillah, it was not so much a source as a testimony to the veracity of the claims they were making.

Many works on Islamic Theology, have pointed out that the Mu’tazilī thought system was fundamentally the assumption of the Greek philosophical system which argued that reason and not only traditional sources could be used as a source of reliable knowledge for human beings. These writers thus conclude that the Mu’tazillah were the first to introduce Greek mode of reasoning and argumentation into the Islamic religious discussions, changing the face of Muslim theology for all time as a result. Abu’l-Hasan al-Ash’ari (d. 936) followed, offering a critique of Mu’tazillism, of both its doctrines and the implications of those doctrines for the

(656). Those who would neither condemn nor sanction ʿAlī or his opponents but took a middle position were termed the Muʿtazilah. The theological school is traced back to Wāṣil ibn ʿAṭāʾ (699–749), a student of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, who by stating that a grave sinner (fāsiq) could be classed neither as believer nor unbeliever but was in an intermediate position (al-manzilah bayna manzilatayn), withdrew (iʿtazala, hence the name Muʿtazilah) from his teacher’s circle. (The same story is told of ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd [d. 762].) Variously maligned as free thinkers and heretics, the Muʿtazilah, in the 8th century AD, were the first Muslims to use the categories and methods of Hellenistic philosophy to derive their three major and distinctive dogmatic points. First, they stressed the absolute unity or oneness (tawḥīd) of God. From this it was logically concluded that the Qurʾān could not be technically considered the word of God (the orthodox view), as God has no separable parts, and so had to be created and was not coeternal with God. Under the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Maʾmūn, this doctrine of the created Qurʾān was proclaimed (827) as the state dogma, and in 833, a miḥnah or tribunal was instituted to try those who disputed the doctrine (notably the theologian Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal); the Muʿtazilī position was finally abandoned by the caliphate under al-Mutawakkil c. 849. The Muʿtazilah further stressed the justice (ʿadl) of God as their second principle. While the orthodox were concerned with the awful will of God to which each individual must submit himself without question, the Muʿtazilah posited that God desires only the best for man, but through free will man chooses between good and evil and thus becomes ultimately responsible for his actions. So in the third doctrine, the threat and the promise (al- waʿd wa al-waʿīd), or paradise and hell, God’s justice becomes a matter of logical necessity: God must reward the good (as promised) and must punish the evil (as threatened). Among the most important Muʿtazilī theologians were Abū al-Hudhayl al-ʿAllāf (d. c. 841) and an-Naẓẓām (d. 846) in Basra and Bishr ibn al-Muʿtamir (d. 825) in Baghdad. It was al-Ashʿarī (d. 935 or 936), a student of the Muʿtazilī al-Jubbāʾī, who broke the force of the movement by refuting its teachings with the same Hellenistic, rational methods first introduced by the Muʿtazilah. Muʿtazilī beliefs were disavowed by the Sunnite Muslims, but the Shīʿites accepted their premises.” (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mutazilah) 49 relative significance of reason and tradition, which resulted in a period of Ash’arī dominance. Ash’arism25 in turn was criticised by a small revival of Hanbali forces for being too liberal, particularly through the work of the Ẓāhirite26 literalist27 Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm (d. 1064) of Cordoba, and Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328), both who criticised the ability of intellectual argument to resolve deep-seated difficulties in understanding the Qur’an. They rejected Ash’arite theology and advocated in its place a reliance on the salaf (the ancestors) who, according to them, understood the language of the Qur’an and the practices of the Prophet in ways they do well to emulate, and who were not troubled with all sorts of issues raised by later sects. According to Winter (2008:84), even though in recent times this approach has become important politically due its acceptance in simplified form by the Wahabis, ibn Taymiyyah was always a marginalised figure, and the Ash’arite school, who followed a middle path between traditionalism and rationalism, proved far more acceptable to the `ulamā, quickly developing a complex system at the hands of great thinkers such as Abu Bakr al-Baqillani (d.1013); Abd al-Qadir al-Baghdadi (d. 1037); Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 1209); Najm al-Din al-Nasafi (d. 1142) and Abdu al-Din al-Iji (d. 1355). Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 944) was another theologian whose influence at the time seems to have been significant in the emergence of Sunni Islam. He attacked the doctrines of the Mu’tazillah and set down foundations of his theological system. Much like Ash’ari, al-Maturidi pursued the middle way between traditionalism and rationalism, fashioning an Islam that culminated in the written sources of the faith being fundamental but at the same time finding a place and valuing the activities of the human mind. The theological positioning of later Maturidism is represented in the creed of Najm al-Din Abu Ḥafṣ ‘Umar ibn Muḥammad an-Nasafi (d. 1142) which has proved popular throughout the Muslim world. In form, the creed presents what had become the classical sequence of argumentation, starting with the enumeration of the sources of knowledge and moving through discussions of God and His attributes and His nature, belief and the communication of God via messengers to be concluded by a discussion of life in the world. Rippin (1990: 87) points out that the whole theological position is thereby argued to one cohesive whole, leading the reader from simple observations on how we know things to the

25 “Ash’arism refers to the concept associated with the Islamic Theological school of thought that supports the use of reason and speculative theology to defend faith.” (Encyclopedia Britannica https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ashariyyah) 26 “Ẓāhirite refers to one who adheres to the Ẓāhiriyyah Islamic school of theological thought that is so named due to their strict adherence to the ẓāhir – literal meaning of the Islamic foundational texts, the Qur’an and Hadith.” (Encyclopedia Britannica https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zahiriyah) 27 Literalist refer to those who interpret the Qur’an and Hadith in its most literal meaning. They adhere to the exactness of the word and do not entertain any other forms of interpretation. 50 compelling implication that therefore the Muslim way of life is the true and divinely desired one.

2.3 Modern Views on the Development of Islamic Theology Discussion on the origin of Islamic Theology occupies an important position in the works of modern scholars, such as Ignaz Goldziher (d. 1921), Joseph van Ess (b. 1934), Montgomery Watt (d. 2006), and others. Dealing with the question of how Islamic theology originated and developed, drawing from their works one can extract at least six views: 1) internal development independent of foreign influences; 2) the importation of Greek sciences through the movement of translation, which introduced the Hellenistic tradition into the Islamic world; 3) the influence of Christianity and 4) Judaism; and lastly the influence of 5) Indian and 6) Persian intellectual tradition which was introduced to Islam through cultural contact.

2.3.1 Internal Development Before delving into a discussion of this view, it is worthwhile to note that the view asserting that Islamic theology was the result of an internal development was not introduced explicitly into modern scholarship until 1975, when two German orientalists, Joseph van Ess (1975) and Hans Daiber (1975) published their works. Schmidtke (2016) argues that the present account of the origins of Islamic theology must begin with its foremost researcher, van Ess (1975), who stated his view, succinctly as follows:

Theology in Islam did not start as polemics against unbelievers. Even the kalām style was not developed or taken over in order to refute non-Muslims, especially the Manicheans, as one tended to believe when one saw the origin of kalām in the missionary activities of the Muʿtazila. Theology started as an inner-Islamic discussion when, mainly through political development, the self-confident naïvité of the early days was gradually eroded. (Van Ess 1975a: 101)

Van Ess’s views on the development of Islamic Theology, especially in his earlier publications, can thus be characterized as ‘internalist’ (Schmidtke, 2016). He presents Islamic theology as having developed more or less independently of foreign influences and as addressing concerns internal to the early Muslim community itself. This differs with most modern scholars’ assertion of foreign elements in Islamic theology, which was introduced as a theory since the first half of the nineteenth century. The supporters of this view, such as Egyptian scholar Ahmed Amin (d. 1954) for example in his three volume book Duha al-Islam (The Forenoon of Islam) (1934-6) that covers the history of Islam during the period of the Abbasid Caliphate, 51 considers that kalām was triggered by an internal factor, namely the need for the art of debate in defending their views against their adversaries as well as an external factor closely associated with the translation movement of Greek writings.

Amin (1934-6) argues that some qur’anic verses having been revealed to respond to various sects and pagans in refutation of their religious views serve as an acknowledgement of the internal factor for the development of kalām. Amin further argues that the external factors that influenced that development of kalām are closely related to their being occupied with the Greek philosophy to construct arguments in defense of their views. He concluded that the internal factor represents the polemical, while the external factor represents the apologetic side.

Mufti Ali (2008), in his unpublished doctoral thesis titled Muslim Opposition to Logic and Theology in the Light of the Works of Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911/1505), cites two additional scholars, Gardet, L. and M.M. Anawati (1948) who, in their publication Introduction à la Thèologie Musulmane, argued that the ‘seed’ of rational tendencies had grown up as early as the time of the Companions. To substantiate this, they present the example of companions, full names Ìbn Àbbas, Ibn Masùd and Ìkrima, whom they conclude applied rational methods in interpreting the Qur’an through the process of ijtihad (personal reasoning) or personal rational elaboration (Ali, 2008). Although the term kalām did not yet exist in this period, according to Gardet and Anawati as cited by Ali (2008), this rational tendency played a decisive role in the orientation of kalām.

However, the most explicit contention of the indigenous development of kalām can only be found in the works of two German orientalists: Joseph van Ess and Hans Daiber, as stated previously. Van Ess shares the view that the politico-theological discussion that came about from the debate on who is to succeed the Prophet is what produced the internal kalām movement. Ali (2008) clarifies that Harun Nasution (1972) also affirmed this view that the theological movement which arose in Islam originated from political issues.

Van Ess regards the emergence of Islamic theology, kalām and speculative sciences as coming from within. Ali (2008) and Schmidtke (2016) point out van Ess’s argument that the contents of theology in the realm of Islam are not identical with those in Latin or Greek, as ‘knowledge about God,’ but rather named after its style of argumentation: one ‘talks’ (takallama) with the adversary by posing questions and reducing his position to ‘meaningless alternatives. Van Ess 52 develops his view by abolishing the commonly shared conviction that the art of theology is of foreign bearing. This is clearly indicated in his words:

“The thesis we want to defend – that Muslim civilization did not slowly develop the art of theology and especially of kalām, but rather grew up with it – sounds too radical to be established by these isolated items. We are too accustomed to the idea that the Arabs ‘of the desert,’ masters of poetry and language but uncultivated in all occupations of an urban society, including theology, started their culture as if it were in a vacuum and only gradually severed their inherited predilections. We adhere too stubbornly to the conviction that literature in Umayyad times was mainly transmitted orally so that it is hard for us to accept readily the possibility of immediate theological production.”

The most recent affirmation of this view was proposed by Abdel M. Haleem (1996) who concludes that kalām ‘originated completely in the Islamic environment.’ (1996: 79). Affirming his point, Haleem (1996) contends that the initial concept of kalām is to be found in the Qur’an itself, which deals with theological issues supported by rational proofs. He further maintains that the appearance of theological sects was primarily the result of differences among Muslims in understanding the Qur’an and the way their views related to the Qur’anic position. Haleem (Ibid), however, does not reject the influence of foreign elements, rather he argues that it forms part of the later development of Islamic theology, concluding that this only occurred when the Arabs had mixed with other nations and the Greek texts were translated into Arabic.

2.3.2 Hellenistic Influence So far, the origin and the development of Islamic philosophical theology, kalam, as fostered by Muslim contact with Hellenism, has become the dominant view of modern scholarship. The dominant view among modern scholarship has become that the development of kalām is influenced by Muslims’ contact with Hellenism (Ali, 2008; Goldziher, 1981; Laoust, 1965 & 1971; Watt, 1962 & 1973; Gibb, 1955; Von Grunebaum, 1976; Fakhry, 1983; Madjid, 1984; and Van Koningsveld, 1998), who either explicitly or implicitly place the origins of Islamic theology within the importation of Greek works into the Muslim world. Modern scholars have argued that the translation projects of Greek philosophy and sciences of the eighth and ninth centuries played a substantial role in accelerating the influence of Hellenism in the Islamic world (Ibid). According to Madjid (1984), Islamic Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism, as well as the emergence of scholastic theology in the Islamic world must be considered the result of the direct cultural influence of such a process. He adds that this process and its consequence is not a coincidence, rather it tells us about the systematic attempt undertaken by the seventh Abasid Caliph, Abu al-Abbas Abdallah ibn Harun al-Rashid (d. 216), better known as al- 53

Ma’mun (Madjid, 1984). Ali (2008) writes that al-Ma’mun was fascinated with the practical use of Greek philosophy and science and thus promoted for the significance of the adoption of foreign culture. Fakhry (1983) argues that Ma’mun being influenced by Greek culture composed several treatises on theological questions and speculative spirit, which Fakhry adds led to the support of the cause of the Mu’tazillah as well as the promotion of popular interest in scholastic theology that had wanted to apply classifications of Greek thought to Muslim dogmas. Van Koningsveld (1998), as a result of al-Ma’mun’s explicit policy of the state, and the people’s interest to learn about the new culture as a result, which culminated in several treatise and books being translated from Greek to Arabic, thus termed it the ‘Ma’mun cycle’. He adds that the Ma’mun cycle was readily favoured by the group of Muslims who considered their achievements lacking, and thus in need of assistance from other cultures. It thus provided Muslims with what could be termed as an inclusive cultural perception, which he argues was necessary to find the epistemological support of elements derived from other cultures. Gibb (1955) states that while this may have been welcomed by some, it was criticized by others who regarded their cultural achievements as self-sufficient and in no need of any external influence or support. He argues that this group, thus, had a hostile approach and response to the ‘Ma’mun cycle’, and concludes that history has since witnessed recurrent disagreements between those with, and in support of, an inclusive attitude towards foreign culture and those who were against it who felt they have nothing to learn from the outside (Gibb, 1955).

Ali (2008) argues that it is reasonable to conclude that the idea of Hellenism as influential or a key aspect of Islamic scholastic theology (kalām), falsafa have met with opposition from a great number of Muslims since their inception in the Islamic World in the eighth and ninth century. Ali (2008) concludes that like falsafa, kalām, being considered as a part of the Hellenistic tradition, also became the target of the opposition of a great number of traditionalists, which he suggests can be drawn from firstly, in their prohibition of engaging in kalām, including the breaking off relations with, and banishment of, the Mutakallimūn; and secondly, in their refutation of the Mutakallimūn’s tenets. It is thus safe to say that while there is an argument to substantiate the Hellenistic influence on the development of Islamic theology, there is also a very robust rebuttal to disprove it.

2.3.3 Jewish Influence Ali (2008) argues that the idea of Jewish influence on Islamic theology was first explicitly introduced in the works of Abraham Geiger in 1833, a work he describes as provocative. 54

Greiger’s work was subsequently followed by the works of David Neumark in 1833 who agreed with his predecessors in highlighting that the discussion on the Jewish influence on Islamic theology revolves around three focus areas, the created Qur’an; anthropomorphism and its opposite; and the issue of predestination and free will. Ali (2008) states that for both Geiger and Neumark certain theological concepts of Islam seem to be borrowings from Judaism. Of these, Ali (2008) states Geiger included the concepts such as the oneness of God, reward and punishment, the creation of the heaven and earth in seven days, the resurrection of bodies in the Hereafter, revelation through angels, the notion of the heavenly book, etc. to clarify his argument. Ali (2008) adds, Martin Schreiner (1895), yet another German researcher and historian to the debate who based on his opinion that anthropomorphism was mostly avoided in Judaism rejected the opinion that anthropomorphism as presented by the Mu’tazillites was of Jewish origin. He, however, argued as follows “the main points of Mu’tazilite views can be found in the preceding Jewish literature, and there are certain dates in Arabian writings that attribute the teachings of the Mu’tazilites to Judaism […] the doctrine of Mu’tazilites referred to the unity and righteousness of God.” Both Neumark and Schreiner argued that the introduction of the concept of free will which led to the controversy among Muslim theologians took place under the influence of Judaism (Ali, 2008).

2.3.4 The Christian Influence The interrogation of the influence of Christianity on the development of Islamic theology has been the focus on many Orientalist researchers, the earliest of which is such as the work of Alfred Von Kremer (Ali, 2008). Others who have engaged the topic include, Goldziher; MacDonald; Nagel; as well as Becker; De Boer; Guillaume; Sweetman; Bell; Shedd; Seale; Davidson; and Allard. Ali (2008) argues that most of the works on the influence of Christianity on the development of theology in Islam may be riddled with some bias considering the context of the political relation between Muslim countries and the West at the time of its writing and publishing, since most of the works were written shortly after the Second World War.

Much like the argument of the possible influence of Judaism on the development of Islamic theology in Islam the focus on of the possible influence of Christianity on the development of Islamic theology in Islam hones in on discussions of theological dogma and theological teachings believed to have been borrowed from Christianity. The influence and teachings of prominent Christian theologian, John of Damascus (d.749) as well as his disciple Theodore Abu Qurra (d.826) are at the centre of these discussions (Ali, 2008). Wolfson (1976) and Seale 55

(1964) argue that De Boer and his 1901 publication points out that the ideas of God and His relation to man and the world, Gods divine attributes, the concept of the eternity of Qur’an, and the concept of free will, are all borrowings from Christianity.

Ali (2008) concludes this discussion with a final argument in this regard, one that suspects that the influence of Christianity on Islamic theology could also have been shaped by, for example, the move of Islam’s capital city from Madinah to Damascus which at that time was a dominantly Christian city, home to many prominent Christian theologians such as St. John of Damascus (d. 749); Theodore Abu Qurrah (d. 820) who was the intellectual successor to St. John of Damascus; Clement of Alexandria (d. 215); etc. all of whom were very influential in their respective time and doctrinal teachings and the new residents of the city’s exposure to the already set atmosphere and teaching. Added to this is that it is also argued that the Umayyad’s involvement with Christians on many administrative levels such as advisors, admirals in the army, poets, tutors to their children could also have impacted on the influence of Christianity on the development of Islamic theology (Ibid.).

2.3.5 Persian and Indian Influence Ali (2008) points out that those who support the argument of Persian influence on the development of Islamic theology locate it within the cultural contact between Islam and the Persian people after the Arab conquest in the first half of the seventh century. To substantiate that, Ali (Ibid), cites Marietta Stepaniants (2002) who argues that the traces of Persian influence on Islamic theology is present in the concepts of dualism and eschatology, concepts which also had a profound influence on the other two Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Christianity.

Majid Fakhri (2000) points out that the Persian influence was mainly focused on the literally and moral folklore of the Persians, the earliest of which is that of Kalilah wa Dimnah, or the two centuries later compiled works of Abu `Ali Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Ya’qub Miskawayh (d. 1030)28, Jawidan Khirad (Eternal Wisdom).29

28 Abu `Ali Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Ya’qub Miskawayh is more notably referred to as just Miskawayh. He is recorded as the first Arab philosopher who wrote a substantial work, The Refinement of Character, which mainly focused on ethics and subsequently had a great impact on Islamic philosophical ethics after him. (Mohamed, Yaien. 2000. Greek Thought in Arab Ethics: Miskawayh’s Theory of Justice. Phronimon. 2(1). 242- 259) 29 The Jawidan Khirad (Eternal Wisdom) is a compilation that consists of everything Miskawayh could gather regarding the Indians, Persian, the Greeks and the Arabs, commencing with aphorisms and 56

Sayed Nomanul Haq (1996) questioned the Indian influence on Islamic theology based on a lack of historical data. He, however, supports the influence of Persian dualism in concepts such as atomism, the relation between reason and revelation, God’s existence or ‘creation’ out of nothing, God’s justice and attributes, etc. (Ali, 2008). Haq (1996) states that this influence is traced to the Mutakalimun and Manicheean dualists of Persia whose contact, in turn, led to the emergence of many polemical kalām writings against dualist ideas. This, `Ali (2008), argues is notable in the works of Abu ’l-Faraj al-Isfahani (d. 957), who reported that several disciples of al-Hasan al-Basri (d. 728) held debates with those who were accused of disseminating Manicheism. This contact, according to Haq, was also well recorded by a great number of Muslim theologians such as ‘Abd al-Jabbar (d. 1025), al-Maturidi (d. 942), Ibn al-Nadim (d. 995) and al-Shahrastani (d. 1145).

Ali (2008), refers to Augustus Schmölders (1842) as the architect of the argument of the Indian influence on the development of kalām, citing that Schmölders argued that several Mu’tazilite leaders were exposed to many Indian works. This argument, according to Ali (Ibid), is further affirmed by Max Horten in his 1910 work. It is clear that Augustus Schmölders’s scholarship regarding the introduction of the Indian influence on Islamic theology impacted later studies on the issue. Ali (2008), for example, cites Leopold Mabilleau (1895) and Pines (1939) and his study of the history of atomism, which is a central issue in Islamic theology, as having its origins in India, and not from the Greek concepts of atomism as argued by others. Even though this theory is still upheld by some scholars to date, according to Ali (2008), Massignon refuted this view in 1910 holding that the Indian influence on kalām was only based on similarities and isolated coincidences, an argument that is supported by Sayed Nomanul Haq (1996) who further rendered questionable such influence basing his conclusion on the argument of a lack of historical data to support it. Majid Fakhri (2000) argues that while Muslim scholars displayed an interest in Indian and Persian cultures, it did not match their interest in Greek culture. He adds that the interest in Indian culture focused on the astronomical and medical, but that their religious beliefs were not completely overlooked. Fakhri cites the example of Ibn al-Nadim30 (d. 995) to clarify the

sermons of the prehistoric Persian king Ushahang (Hoshang), Buzurgimhr, Anushirwan, Bahman the King and others. 30 “Abu'l-Faraj Muhammad bin Is'hāq al-Nadim (d. 995 or 998) was a Muslim scholar and bibliographer, possibly of Persian origin. He is famous as the author of Kitāb al-Fihrist. It is, in his own words, an Index of the books of all nations, Arabs and non-Arabs alike, which are extant in the Arabic language and script, on every branch of knowledge; comprising information as to their compilers and the classes 57 aforementioned point. He argues that Ibn al-Nadim, who was a great bibliographer, refers to a copy of a text “On the Creeds and Religions of India” that he saw in the ownership of Abu Yusuf al-Kindi (d. 873), who was a prominent figure during the Abbasid Caliphate, as well as other tracts on which he says he based his account of religious creed of the Indians (Fakhri, 2000). We find in Fakhri’s works the addition that the religious and philosophical beliefs of the Indians can be found in the writings of Abu Rayhan Muhammad al-Biruni (d. 1048), more specifically his work “The Truth about the Beliefs of the Indians” (Ibid). In this work al-Biruni mentions the ninth century writer, Abu’l Abbas al-Iranshari, who was particularly conversant with Indian religious doctrines and who appears to have influenced the great philosopher- physician Abu Bakr al-Razi (d. 925), especially in his concepts of space and time and the atomic composition of bodies. Some aspects of Indian atomism appear, in fact, to have been at the basis of the atomism of Kalām, as mentioned being one of the cornerstones of Islamic theology (Fakhri, 2000).

Before concluding this segment, it is relevant to note and differentiate between the two varying meanings of the term kalām mentioned a number of times in this section. The word kalām (lowercase ‘k’), which literally means ‘speech’ or as indicated by van Ess means to ‘talk’ (kallama). Firstly, it is a particular style of theological argumentation with the opponent by asking questions and reducing his position to meaningless alternatives (van Ess 1975; van Ess 1982; Frank 1992). Secondly, ‘Kalām’ (uppercase ‘K”) generally refers to ʿIlm al- Kalām an Arabic term which refers to the science of Islamic theology. While these terms are loosely used interchangeably, or generically for Islamic theology, it may be problematic to do so, because, as argued by Schmidtke (2016:45), there are Islamic theologies - discourses about the divine - distinct from, and in some cases critical of, Kalām. Examples of these are Ḥanbalite theology, Ismaʿīli theology, Ṣūfi theology, Philosophical theology—i.e., the theological part of metaphysics, often called ‘the divine science’, Al-ʿIlm al-Ilahi, etc., and moreover, because Kalām covers both theological and non-theological areas of inquiry (Ibid). In the same way that jurisprudence (fiqh), qur’anic exegesis (tafsīr), prophetic traditions (ḥadīth), history (sīrah), grammar (naḥw) and the study of the Arabic language emerged as autonomous disciplines within the classical Islamic tradition, `Ilm al-Kalām carved out its own smaller

of their authors, together with the genealogies of those persons, the dates of their birth, the length of their lives, the times of their death, the places to which they belonged, their merits and their faults, since the beginning or every science that has been invented down to the present epoch : namely, the year 377 of the Hijra.” (https://peoplepill.com/people/ibn-al-nadim/) 58 niche among the Islamic traditional sciences (Shah, 2007). Charles Butterworth (2001) in his translation of the works of Abu Nasr al-Farabi (d. 950) quotes him as stating that ʿIlm al- Kalām / Theology is a science which enables an individual to victoriously argue and defend the specific opinions legislated by the Legislator of the religion, and to refute any rebuttal counter to it. Considering the above, one may conclude that the science is rooted in an individual’s desire to find meaning and sense in what he believes and practices to be in line with what he understands the underlying principles of his faith to be as laid down by the creator and legislator of the religion. It is safe to say that such grappling is an intrinsic human quality, in fact one could argue that Muslims are commanded toward such pondering and reflection (tafakkur wa tadabbur) (Q. 38:29; 47:24; 23:68; 12:22). In fact, the process of contemplation or tafakkur and tadabbur as mentioned in the Qur’an, is the beginning of all sorts of spiritual activity, for example Muhammad retreated to the Cave of Hira isolating himself for days to contemplate and reflect upon the challenges and concerns he had for and with his community.

According to Ali (2008), the rich legacy of kalām spans across a wide stretch of Islamic history. We note that arguments are made that contributions to its discourse were made from a diverse range of perspectives and outlooks. Some indication of the usefulness of its thought is reflected in the observation that theological discourse of the post-sixth centuries AH is finer in its conceptual sophistication and theoretical dexterity than the preceding periods of its history (Schmidtke, 2016). The theoretical discussions that pervade the works of scholars such as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 1209), Sayf al-Din al-`Amidi (d. 1233), Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), Jamal al-Din al-Hilli (d. 1325), and Sa’ad al-Din al-Taftazani (d. 1389) could be highlighted to substantiate such remarks. Current scholarship is therefore only beginning to tap into kalām’s rich reservoir of materials.

Alexander Treiger (2016: 2) notes that unravelling the sources of Islamic theology has proved to be an intricate task, complicated by the fact that Muslims and others have tried to articulate above. The project to complete organizing this information on the indigenous populations’ religious beliefs and social life, imperfect understanding of the interactions between non- Muslims and Muslims within the early Islamic period, has yielded no established history of conversions to Islam, and fairly incomplete information, typically of questionable reliability, on the earliest (first/seventh-century) development of Islamic theology itself (Schmidtke, 2016). Researchers have thus undertaken what seems a speculative approach, based on their analysis of information secured and at hand, each of them concluding what they believe to be 59 correct, some supporting and others clearly opposing. Conflicting conclusions of this nature confirm the conceptual complexity and sophistication of the original sources. They also reveal the wide range of approaches, methodologies and interests applied in their interpretation, confirming the extent to which disagreements relating to ascription, projection and interpretation have combined to affect studies of this science’s importance. However, debates of this nature are important for gauging tensions between traditionalist and rationalist approaches to the synthesis of dogma. It is also valuable in setting the standard for polemical debates and the applied etiquette that should accompany it.

This recital of historical events is thus not irrelevant to our theological concern. Supporters of the sociology of knowledge would hold that all theological and philosophical ideas have a political or social reference; and the perspective of this dissertation is in accordance with such an outlook.

2.4 The Naming of Different Theologies On March 23rd, 2009, at the Institute for the Sciences of Religion, Faculty of Humanities, Lieden University, Professor Dr. P.S. van Koningsveld delivered his farewell lecture titled “Revisionism and Modern Islamic Theology”. In the opening of the lecture he made a statement that in the context of his lecture may not entirely be what I am taking from it, but its wording and my own analysis thereof is useful in bringing forth the point I wish to make. Koningsveld (2009. p. 1) said “In reality, every theologian created his own Muhammad.” What I extract from this is that every theologian, every jurist, every Islamic scholar, and even every Muslim has the scope in Islam to find what it means to them to be a Muslim, within the parameters of the religion as revealed and declared by the One who ordained it. What it means to recite and firmly attest to the shahādah – the declaration of faith previously mentioned in this thesis together with the other four pillars of faith. Thus, when one reviews the historical mapping of the development of Islamic Theology, as I have tried to do in the opening of this chapter, it becomes evident that this is what theologians, scholars, poets, leaders, and Muslims throughout the centuries had been grappling with finding a semblance with their faith, its requirements, their internal ethical compass, and the religious-socio-ethico-economic challenges faced in their society, with some being recorded in the history pages as having succeeded while others are recorded to have failed, but as Islamic belief goes “The judgement is only Allah’s; He relates the truth and He is the best of deciders” (Q. 6:57).

The contending of issues observed in the history of Islam has been ongoing since the demise of Muhammad, and has seemingly escalated as Muslims face the onslaught of the ‘war on terror’ with them and their faith being the focused target, the impact of which we have witnessed aggressive militant wars against Muslim states, leaving in its wake carnage and destruction, that has resulted in one of the many consequences being migration across their borders fleeing toward safety and thus further necessary integration into what would possibly have been seen as a more modern society. This exposure to new cultures and norms has either resulted in assimilation and adaptation with or without sacrifice of faith, or total rejection and thus rigidity and an inflexibility toward their near and far surroundings. September 11, 2001 (herein after 9/11) is often mentioned as the day that projected and cemented the idea of Muslim terror, rigidity and the epitome of fundamentalism. In all parts of the world wherever there was a Muslim community, Muslims now found themselves with a desire to undo the stigma attached to themselves and their faith, resulting in some interesting framings of thought. 9/11 and migration across borders alone is not the only reason Muslims have come up with responses to complex issues facing their community, the growth of the population, the discovery of new conditions, the impact these have on the environment and how Muslims acclimate and associate with their fellow beings, as a principle of their faith, also served as catalyst for framing of responses, thought and theological response. The scope of this thesis does not allow for an extensive elaboration of all such responses, In the following chapter I will thus present a few examples of such responses and the contexts that gave rise to its framing and naming.

Chapter Three Some Contemporary Shifts in Islamic Theologies

3.0 Introduction Only differing in pace and space, the one immutability in Islamic Theology has been its mutability - its responsiveness to various internal and external impulses. At times, these are generated by prophetic characters desperate to reverse the tides of obscurantism and injustice around them and, at other times, by delusional megalomaniacs desperate for power and capturing God’s name to acquire it, regardless of the number of dead bodies required in attaining this ideal. At other times, these changes are propelled by political and economic forces and systems – often equally demonic and megalomaniac – but masquerading under the banner of bringing civilization to the barbarians.

These shifts in contemporary Islam run the entire scope of ideologies and theologies covering the areas of humour, sex, comics, culture, economics, and politics – every conceivable area that the human imagination can enter. Forcing its way to the front – or being forced to the front are the more spectacular manifestations of religious fundamentalism - which deems it an insult to adjectivize Islam; for them Islam is Islam – usually their own interpretation of it - and any adjectivization is a concession to heresy regarded as part of the revision of traditional Islam to make it more palatable to the appetites of the dominant powers.

Muslim responses to the HIV & AIDS pandemic can also be located somewhere in this spectrum. Given, however, that I am concerned with how an Islamic Liberation of Theology with its roots in Liberation Theology was invoked to birth a Theology of Compassion, the range of discussing concerning these theological permutations are limited. Before discussing these two (Islamic/ Liberation Theology & the Theology of Compassion of Positive Muslims), I will briefly consider a few other theologies that have tried to make an entry into the space of contemporary Islamic theologies. In discussing the earlier developments of Islamic theology, I considered various factors that influence these. Many of those same factors continue to impact Islamic theology with the singular difference that the interconnectedness of cultures has become far starker and more undoable. The question of one religion influencing another is now a given, only dismissed or rejected by those with the stubborn tendency to persist with the belief of immunity from reality.

Due to lack of space we are forced to confine ourselves to South Africa in discussing these newer named theologies at least in regard to Islam and Muslims in South Africa – some born and still alive and others struggling to be born.

The first of these, Theology of Reconstruction, locates itself in relation to the challenges of a post-trauma or destruction era. The second of these attempts in adjectivized theology is in relation to a more settled situation but where the religious location and vision of Muslims are in a state of dis-ease with its predominantly non-Muslim surroundings and Muslim struggle to lessen the sense of dis-ease, trying to narrow the gap between their real and relatively comfortable conditions as citizens on the one hand and their idea of Muslimness and what Islam requires from them, on the other. This category which seeks to be alive to the Muslims here and now and their reality (and privileges) of citizenship can be described as a theology of Contextuality and Citizenship; this is covered in three Arabic/Islamized notions: Fiqh al- Muwatanah/ Fiqh al-Aqaliyat/ Fiqh al-Wāqi’iyyah.

While these two forms only seriously challenge traditional Muslims, who insist that Islam and Muslimness should never be adjectivized, the other two are much more challenging to traditional communities - the one is the conscious adoption of the term ‘Islamic Feminism” and the other is ‘Islamic Liberation Theology’. Both of these underpinned Positive Muslims’ Theology of Compassion although, I will show and argue, Positive Muslims avoided the use of these terms.

3.1 Theology of Reconstruction Witnessed earlier in Iran and Iraq after their years of warfare against each other, we in Africa, and more specifically South Africa, saw the emergence of calls for a Theology of Reconstruction. Along with the relative success of the struggle for a non-racial democracy came the challenging task of religious formations to develop and include a thoughtful and creative response to political and social renewal, thus the birth of a theology of reconstruction. This was possibly first introduced in 1987 at the Assembly of the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) where Jesse Mugambi (1947- ) proposed a shift from the post-Exodus to post-Exilic imagery for Africa. Charles Villa-Vicencio (1992: 5), in his A Theology of 63

Reconstruction: Nation Building and Human Rights31 highlights that the point of departure for the theology of reconstruction is liberal theory and argues that this is primarily because of the importance the ideology has played regarding the rule of law and the human rights debate (ibid). For this reason, Demaine Jason Solomons (2010: 5) argues that the advent of democracy is a significant reason for some scholars seeking to replace liberation with notions such as reconstruction, development, reconciliation and so forth. This innovative understanding found expression in accepting that the liberative theological articulation in places and situations such as post-Apartheid South Africa, post Iran-Iraq war, post Lebanon war, needed to shift from liberation theologies to reconstruction theology.

In South Africa, one of the historical moments of importance that led to the unification of people from different religions and religious organizations, which Christopher Grzelak (2009) frames as their response to the common quest to combat the aggressively oppressive system of apartheid, was the establishment of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in 1983. The UDF was an important organization which united youth groups, religious organizations, and other movements in a common struggle against apartheid. The Reverend Dr. Alan Boesak (1946- ), who at the 1982 conference of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) denounced Apartheid as a heresy became one of the main supporters of the UDF (De Gruchy, 1995). Many religious organizations from various traditions supported the UDF initiative and became affiliated to it. One such Muslim organization, co-founded by Esack together with three of his comrades in 1984, The Call of Islam, also became an affiliate of the UDF (Esack, 1997: 35). The Call of Islam arguably became the most active Muslim movement, mobilizing nationally against apartheid, gender inequality, and threats to the environment and to interfaith work (Ibid). Esack (1997: 6), further points out that for all the organizations affiliated with the UDF “religion had always been contested terrain, and the struggle was as much about regaining ideological territory from religious conservatism and obscurantism as it was about political freedom.” It is fitting that religious organizations united in the fight against apartheid since, as

31 The back-jacket of Villa-Vicencio’s book outlines his project in the following terms: “The changing situation in South Africa and Eastern Europe prompts Charles Villa-Vicencio to investigate the implications of transforming liberation theology into a theology of reconstruction and nation-building. Such a transformation, he argues, requires theology to become an unambiguously interdisciplinary study. This book explores the encounter between theology, on the one hand, and constitutional writing, law-making, human rights, economics, and the freedom of conscience on the other. Placing his discussion in the context of the South African struggle, the author compares this situation to that in Eastern Europe, and the challenge of what is happening in these situations is identified for contexts where "the empire has not yet crumbled." (Villa-Vicencio, 1992) 64

Esack (1997: 6-7) points out, the apartheid regime on many occasions utilized scriptural support of religious tradition to further their agenda of suffering and oppression over the South African population.

Religion played, and continues to play, an important role in the lives of South Africans and given this significance, it was not strange that many made the connection between religion and liberation. Furthermore, at the same time, all the main political figures of that era invoked religion as the decisive proof of self-correctness (ibid). This included Nelson Mandela32 (d. 2013) who, from his prison33 cell on Robben Island, wrote a letter to the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) (est. 1945), an Islamic traditional theological organization and conveyed the sense of spiritual comfort he derived from visiting the shrine of a Muslim saint34 on the island. While affirming his commitment to his Christian faith, Mandela acknowledged the influence Islam and Muslims had on the African continent, and in a sense, he thanked the Muslim community for its support against fighting the evils of the oppressive apartheid regime (Esack. 1997).

Grzelak (2009:177) argues that it was in the 1990s that the transformation from a struggle system to a social transformation system became highlighted in interactions among religions. Grzelak (ibid) further argues that it is only in the new founded democracy where religious pluralism, based on freedom and equality among religions that could contribute to further mutual enrichment and social reconstruction. Thus, this pluralism could become a dynamic process in which various religions could interact, learn, and come closer to each other. It was also believed that in the new South Africa interreligious dialogue and cooperation among religions needed to be linked with a complex and lengthy process of nation-building which was

32 Nelson Mandela (1918- 2013), a lawyer, activist, politician led the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party in South Africa, in dismantling the legacy of apartheid. He became the first black South African to take up the presidency after the country’s first democratic election. 33 Prior to becoming the president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was imprisoned for treason as a political prisoner on Robben Island, a small island off the Cape coast, for 27 years.

34 Robben Island was initially served as a prison for eastern political exiles and leader, convicts and slaves. “It is as a reminder of the injustices and the ill-treatment afforded these prisoners that a Kramat [Muslim shrine} is to be found on the island […] and thus Robben Island becomes very much a part of the history of the Muslims in South Africa. Sayed Abduraghman Motura […] whose shrine on Robben Island, is a symbol of the struggle for the establishment of Islam.” (http://www.capemazaarsociety.com/Tuan-Matarah.php) 65 likely to be successful if all the religions engaged equally in it (Ibid). Gerrie Lubbe (1995: 150- 170) points out that the “new” South Africa had to recognize, accept, and use religious diversity for reconstructing society. On the other hand, the diverse religions were supposed to accompany nation building if they wanted to remain relevant in the new context (ibid). Once this was understood and accepted, it took effect, and different religions established mutual understandings, and through mutual discourse and collaboration worked toward establishing peace, unity and security, elements for the program of nation building (Grzelak, 2009).

The theology of reconstruction has been argued as a praxis and deed-oriented model of rebuilding (Grzelak, 2009). The issue of reconstruction has appealed to many nations that have moved from significant transitional periods, be it economic, social, and or political. This has made the reconstruction theology, a relevant theology.

3.2 Theology of Citizenship: Fiqh al-Muwatanah/ Fiqh al-Aqaliyat/ Fiqh al-Wāqi’iyyah I place these concepts very mindfully under one subheading since one may consider them interconnected and interrelated. The three concepts are not strange, or new, to Islamic discussions considering that the idea thereof can be traced to/ or extracted from the Agreement of Medina formulated and established by the Prophet Muhammad35 (Al-Wa’iy, Tawfiq, 1996; Imarah, Muhammad, 2005). One may thus place the Fiqh al-Muwatanah (a jurisprudence of citizenship), Fiqh al-Aqaliyat (a jurisprudence of minorities), and the Fiqh al-Wāqi’iyyah (a jurisprudence of contemporary context) under its inclusion of Muslim-non-Muslim relations and interaction.

According to Uriya Shavit (2015: 10) the hijrah/s proposed and those led by Muhammad meant that believers were moved from one non-Muslim society to another with the hope, and result of, better prospects to practice their faith. There were those Muslims who chose to stay behind in Mecca after the hijrah, and while they were natives of the town, at that time they were living as a minority group in a non-Muslim city. Muslims who continued to live under Christian occupiers held firmly to ancestral lands and some had no alternative but to remain there. It was, however, only after the Second World War that migration to the West witnessed for the first time in history masses of Muslims willingly and independently parting from their Muslim

35Medina is located in the western region of Saudi Arabia and was previously named Yathrib. Muhammad was spent the last ten years of his life here and it was also here where he was buried. 66 homelands and settling in non-Muslim lands, in most cases for the purpose of improving their economic situation (Shavit, 2015). The result of this migration created for these Muslims an unprecedented theological juristic challenge of legitimacy.

Many traditional and modern scholars have turned their attention to this important and urgent matter facing Muslims, notably approaching the matter from different and differing angles. In his 2010 publication, Mafhum al-Muwatanah fi al-Fikr al-‘Arabi al-Islami, Abdul Jalil Abu al- Majd, provides the following synopsis on the different scholars’ engagement of, and publications in the discourse of the Jurisprudence or Theology of Citizenship/ Fiqh al- Muwatana and its interrelated disciplines Fiqh al-Aqaliyat, and Fiqh al-Waqi’iyyah.

Rif’at al-Tahtawi, the Egyptian Azhari ulama, who was sent by Muhammad Ali Pasha to France with the Egyptian army, was the first scholar to introduce the concept of al-Watan (Nation) and al-Muwatanah (Citizenship) in his work Hubb al-Awtan (Love for the Nation). This was later added upon by the Tunisian reformist Hayrudin Pasha or Khayrudin al-Tunisi in his work al-Wataniyyah wa al-Din (Nationalism and Religion). However, both addressed the dimensions of the nation-state and looked toward nationalism or Arab nationalism as inspired by the post-revolution French nationality concept. At the end of the nineteenth and in the early twentieth century, the Salafiyyah (not Wahabiyyah) reformist group attempted to analyse these issues through the philosophy of Islamic law and took the ummah and the spirit of Islam into account. The most notable Salafiyyah interlocutors on the issues included: Shaykh Jamaludin al-Afghani (d. 1897) in his al-Jami’ah al-Islamiyyah (Pan-Islamism) work, Shayk Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905) in al-Muwatanah al-Misriyyah (The Egyptian Citizenship), Abdul Rahman al-Kawakibi (d. 1902) in al-Din wa al-Watan (Religion and Nationalism), Syeikh Rashid Redha (d. 1935) in his Bayna al-Jami’ah al-Islamiyyah wa al-‘Asabiyyah al- Jinsiyyah (Between Pan-Islamism and Ethnic Racism), Shaykh ‘Alal al-Fasi (died 1974) in his al-Muwatanah: al-Syu’ur wa Taklif’ (Citizenship: Emotion and Responsibility), and lastly, Abdul Hamid Ben Badis (d.1940) in his Al-Wataniyah al-Islamiyyah (The Islamic Citizenship). Reformists and Islamic jurists who were either from Ottoman-influenced lands or states conquered by the West still viewed the Muwatanah (citizenship) issue from a Fiqh (Islamic legalistic) framework based on the Caliphate protectorate and not under the nation-state framework. Modern Islamic jurists and thinkers of Muslim-majority states however have different views on the Fiqh al-Muwatanah concept, including Dr Fahmi Huweydi from Egypt. His book Muwatinun la Dhimmiyun (Huweydi, 1990) became a source of reference for later 67 discussions on the abovementioned issue. His boldness and courage in bringing new ijtihad was later built upon by Dr Tariq al-Bishri (also from Egypt) in his work al-Jam’ah wa al- Muwatanah (Unity and Citizenship), Dr Muhammad Imarah in his al-Musawah Haqqun Ilahiyun (Equality is a Guaranteed Right from God), Dr Muhammad Fathi Uthman in his al- Muwatanah al-Kamilah (The Full Citizenship), Prof. Muhammad Salem al-Ewwa in his al- Muwatanah Laysat ‘Iswaiyyah (Citizenship and Not Discrimination), Tunisian Ennahdha Party leader, Dr Rached Ghannouchi in his magnum opus, which was also his PhD thesis, al-Hurriyat al-‘ammah (The Public Freedom in Islam), Prof. Tariq Ramadan in his book, Islam, the West and the Challenges of Modernity, and also Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi in his Muwatanah Ghayr al- Muslimin (Citizenship of non-Muslims). We can see that even though Fahmi Huweydi introduced the term al-Muwatanah, to be fair, the first figure among the contemporary ulama that attempted to introduce ijtihad on the Fiqh related to citizenship was Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali (d. 1996). Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi was his student and he made references to his teacher in his paper Lahum ma lana, wa 'alayhim ma ‘alayna. (Abu al-Majd. 2010. Mafhum al-Muwatanah fi al-Fikr al-‘Arabi al-Islami)

While Abdul Jalil Abu al-Majd (2010) provides a detailed synopsis of the many scholars who have engaged the discourse on Jurisprudence/ Theology of Citizenship, he credits Rashid Ghannuchi with providing detailed definition and meaning for the concept of al-Muwatanah. Ghannuchi, who calls for a shift toward a new Muslim paradigm of equal citizenship, the opposite to the call for Muslims living as a minority under Non-Muslim political authorities to have a separate set of Muslim minority law, based his arguments around the framework of value-based democracy based on the Medina Constitution (Ghannouchi, 2012).

The discourse of Fiqh al-Muwatanah, in South Africa, was foregrounded by Dr Rashid Omar (1959- ), Imam at the Claremont Main Road Mosque (est. 1854) in Cape Town. He addressed the matter in in a khutbah (Friday sermon) in response to some South African Muslims’ concern regarding the permissibility for them to vote in the country’s democratic election. In the khutbah, Omar also gives credit to Ghannouchi, calling his contribution to the discourse “path breaking and inspirational” (Omar, 2016). Omar called upon the Muslim scholars [in South Africa] to urgently develop a new jurisprudence of governance and political ethics” (Omar, 2016), what he deemed to be an interpretation of the foundational Islamic texts, the Qur’an and Sunnah, that resonates with a contemporary context to address the challenges South African Muslims face. While Omar may be considered somewhat of a character on the margins or a 68 pioneer, depending on one’s perspective of his positions, his promotion of Fiqh al-Muwatanah was nevertheless supported by the then President of the Muslim Judicial Council, Mawlana Ihsaan Hendricks (d. 2018).

While the Fiqh al-Aqalliyāt covers the principles of jurisprudence relating to minority citizenship, the Fiqh al-Wāqi’iyyah broadly covers the discourse on and responses to, and understandings of emerging contemporary needs of society. In researching these topics, one does not find too much written about it, possibly due to it being a relatively new area of discourse. However, the Egyptian scholar, Yusuf al-Qardawi’s (1926-) contributions stand out. Qardawi is seen as one of the first Islamic traditional scholar to write about Fiqh al-Aqaliyyāt (Hassan, Said F. 2013), and according to Saied Seyed Hosseini and Sajjad Nafaji (2018: 53), Qardawi is recorded as the first to provide a definition for Fiqh al-Wāqi’iyyah when he says: “Fiqh al-Wāqi’ is based on the study and review of life’s facts. An accurate study that includes all the topic’s aspects and is supported by most correct and exact reports and statistics.” His work was followed, in the 1990’s with the work of Taha Jabir al-Alwani (d. 2016) who asserted that Muslim minorities required a new legal discipline to accommodate and address their distinctive religious needs that are obviously drastically different from those of Muslims living in an Islamic country (ibid).

Muslims ideally adhere to the Sharī’ah following its related fiqh36 rulings developed by their respective juristic schools of thought and law. However, considering that Muslim citizenship has drastically changed since the Muhammadan era, and the ever increasing advancement of all aspects of life such as technology, science, education, health, economic needs, etc. it is understandable that the ever increasing socio-religious, cultural, medical, environmental and legal problems faced by Muslims the world over requires a new considered approach and response, hence the development of notions of the Fiqh al-Aqaliyāt and Fiqh al-Wāqi’iyyah.

3.3 Islamic Feminism

36 Fiqh refers to Islamic jurisprudence. Sharī’ah (or Islamic law) is linguistically defined as a clear course or way. From a legal perspective, Sharī’ah is defined as ‘God’s Law’, which encompasses and lays down the total code of conduct in Islam. Whereas Sharī’ah is considered immutable and infallible by Muslims, Fiqh is considered fallible and changeable. Fiqh deals with the observance of rituals, morals and social legislation in Islam as well as political system. 69

Since the early 1980’s there has been a definitive move towards naming certain Muslim women’s rights activism and their Islamic scholarship work as Islamic feminism. For example, groups such as Sisters in Islam and Musawah in Malaysia, the New York based Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality, The Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights in Egypt, The Muslim Women’s League in Los Angeles, as well as the Women’s Legal Centre in South Africa have been engaging and advocating on various issues related to women’s rights and that of family law. These organizations and many other advocacy groups advocating for the God given rights of women find their roots in Feminist theology.

It is important to note that, as expressed by Susan Frank Parsons (2002), feminist theology is not about honing in on and asserting, or simply affirming, the feminine themes in theology, nor is it about women participating in theology – for women have for many years engaged theology albeit void of interrogation of the masculinist paradigms of theology. Feminist theology is a critical deportment that not only interrogates but challenges the male-controlled gender paradigm that associates males with human attributes defined as superior and authoritative, and females as inferior and secondary (Ibid). Feminist theology interrogates and assesses patterns of theology that validate and support male supremacy and female subordination (Parsons, 2002).

Feminist theology is an adjectivised form of theology in response to a phenomenon that intersects culture, race and generations, which is the discourse around the marginalisation of women. While it has been argued that the vigorously needed response to the marginalisation of women commenced as an offshoot of the liberation theology that came about in Latin America in the 1960’s (Adebayo, 2016), Sheila Davaney (1991) disagrees, and argues that feminist theology has had deep roots in the first women’s movement of the nineteenth century, since she believes that women have always been a part of religious movements, and that they have always been active participants in their respective religious communities. Davaney (ibid) supports her position by referencing The Human Situation: A Feminine View, an article written by Valerie Saiving (1960) referencing it as the catalyst that led to the emergence of women’s experience as an indisputable question for theological reflection. It is with motivations such as these that one may articulate feminist theology as a liberation movement that pursues the appropriate interpretation and response to the humanness of women.

Secular liberal strands of feminisms have long argued that religion and feminist commitments to social justice are philosophically incompatible (Zine, 2004: 171). The assumption that religious frameworks are inherently patriarchal, thus non-responsive nor open to egalitarian and liberatory interpretations, is one that has been challenged by faith-centred framings of feminism. Since the early 1990s a growing body of gender critical engagements and faith investments in South Africa have emerged within a parallel discourse of anti-apartheid liberatory framings. The naming of these engagements as “Islamic” feminism is, however, one that has been variously critiqued. As Seedat (2013: 30) notes, the genealogy of feminism is intimately associated with the “intellectual and theological traditions of Europe and is also strongly associated with European political notions of modernity”.

The rhetoric of Muslim women's liberation, as Zine (2004: 168) noted, is shaped and defined within and against a complex set of discourses. Contemporary Muslim women, particularly within a post-9/11 milieu, often need to navigate racialized and gendered complexities that “variously script the ways their bodies and identities are narrated, defined, and regulated” (ibid).

While Muslims argue, and rightfully so, that Islam gave women rights that women in Christian and Western countries have only recently obtained (Jones, 2005: 3033), and while they also argue that for Muslim women the problem is not lack of rights but lack of education (Ibid), Muslim women face an onslaught of inequality. According to Seedat (2013: 26) the nineties is notable as a period when Muslim women, due to the rampant inequality, analyzed gender and sex egalitarianism in Islam along lines traditionally associated with feminist inquiry; they associated the patriarchal norms of early Muslim societies and contemporary Muslim practice in the global decline of Muslim women’s rights (Ibid). Muslim women the world over facing issues of agency, the veil, marriage and divorce rights, inheritance, etc. called for a review of the patriarchal interpretation of the Islamic foundational texts. Seedat (2013: 27) posits that this shift became known as Islamic Feminism.

Scholars, male and female, have since persistently challenged patriarchal interpretations and understandings of the Qur’an and the Hadith, and have argued that it is not these texts themselves, but rather their interpretations that have allowed for patriarchal traditions to persist (Kynsiletho, 2008). Some have argued that the Qur’an does indeed address gender equality together with issues of social justice, thus setting the foundation and benchmark to challenge patriarchal traditions. Others have argued that what has been termed “Islamic Feminism” is not focused on that, rather it is focused on the process of unmasking these principles from the 71 confines of patriarchal traditions; as an extension of the faith position instead of a rejection of this position (ibid). It is, thus, safe to say that Islamic feminism, as a responsive adjectivised Islamic theology, has as its primary objective to draw upon Islam's authentic legacy as documented in its foundational texts, the Qur'an and Ḥadīth, to recover its egalitarian teachings by means of an exegetic approach.

While theologies responding to the minority condition or the contemporary and the contextual are necessary and inevitable for believers who wish to remain in a state of active belief while being simultaneously critically present as engaged citizens amongst non-Muslims and in a world distant from 6th century Arabia, other specifically named theologies such as a Theology of Reconstruction emerge from a specific challenge; in the case of South Africa, from apartheid and in the case of Iran, from long war with Iraq. These theologies, though, generalize all Muslims – rich and poor – and fail to ask in whose interest these new theologies have to be constructed. This is where Liberation Theology comes in.

Having established that adjectivized theologies are routine among Muslims – both the earliest ones in our discussion on the development of traditional Islamic theology and later in our examples of Theologies of Reconstruction, the Minority Condition (Fiqh al-Aqaliyāt) and Contextual Theology (Fiqh al-Wāqi’iyyah) we now proceed to discuss Liberation Theology, from which Positive Muslims’ Theology of Compassion is an offspring - or what its founders, more specifically Farid Esack, envisaged it would be.

3.4. Liberation Theology The Encyclopaedia of Religion (2005) defines Liberation Theology as a critical reflection on the historical praxis of liberation in a concrete situation of oppression and discrimination. Miguel de La Torre in his Liberation Theology for Armchair Theologians states that “Liberation theology is a critique of Western political, economic, and social structures from the perspectives of the disenfranchised.” (2013: 150). This section of the dissertation does not allow for further elaboration on liberation theology. Thus, it will be expounded and fleshed out in Chapter Four by delving into Liberation theology as located within Positive Muslims’ Theology of Compassion. What is important to note here are the collective themes that may be considered as the objectives of Liberation Theology as espoused by liberation theologians:

1) To change society more than to understand God (or God’s will), i.e., to let go of the notion that understanding society and understanding God goes together, or that the one is rooted in 72 the other; the priority is to promote fundamental changes in the way society is structured and that at its deepest levels (Roger Olsen, 2013);

2) Denouncing global capitalism as a brutal oppressive force responsible for the misery and premature death of much of the world’s population;

3) Interpretation of religious texts from the perspective of the poor and oppressed;

4) God has a preferential option for the poor and oppressed, and they have a privileged insight into God;

5) That there is a consciousness of oppression rooted in oppressed experience and that this is both a source and a norm for theology (Roger Olsen, 2013);

6) Action, orthopraxy and the agency of the oppressed, the praxis from which theology begins and upon which it reflects is solidarity with the oppressed in their struggle for liberation (Roger Olsen, 2013);

7) Emphatically understanding the social side of the religious message;

8) Theology should not be universal, in the sense of the same everywhere, rather it should be local, as Roger Olsen (2013) argues, asking the question “How can theology in an affluent all- white suburb, be the same for the suburb where children go hungry and people live in subhuman conditions?

9) The liberation of the oppressed is the work of the oppressed themselves, they should not and cannot wait on the privileged group in society to extend equality, they should make it happen and take it;

10) Understanding that because social reform, such as religious political progressive advocacy is too slow and timid, and thus liberation theology must be revolutionary.

Marco Demichelis (2014: 125) argues that Christian Liberation theology is the liberator of the oppressed. Citing the Medellin CELAM documents37 he notes that the “Poverty of the Church needs to be understood between three meanings of the term poverty: preference to the poorest and mostly needy sectors and to those segregated for any cause whatsoever; spiritual poverty, in the sense of readiness to do God’s will, and universality in supporting the poorest of the entire world without any ethnic and religious difference.” Demichelis, thus locates Christian Liberation theology with Jesus, his message and teachings. (2014: 130)

According to Matthew Palombo (2014: 42), all liberation theologies emerge during struggles for socioeconomic, political, and psychological liberation from objective and subjective forms of oppression. He adds that there can be no liberation theology without real, historical, liberation praxis—transformative political activism, and that it is within these struggles for liberation that the revelatory activity of God in history demonstrates a 'preferential option for the poor' and sides against those who exert oppression and domination (Palombo, 2014: 43). Referencing La Cunga (1991); Clodovis Boff (1993); Esack (1997); Wolterstorff (2008); and others, Palombo (2014) notes that for liberation theologians, then, the starting point [of theology] is the oppressed and not abstract topics or general ideas.

With that, when Islamic Liberation Theology meets HIV & AIDS – the result cannot be mere pity or even simple care but a responsible solidarity in praxis for justice to end the socio- economic conditions which allows HIV to spread and denies its victims access to health care.

3.4.2 Islamic Liberation Theology Farid Esack, co-founder of Positive Muslims, and arguably the architect of its theology, the Theology of Compassion38, was born in apartheid South Africa in 1955.39 Esack’s exposure to

37 The Medellín Documents refer to the outcome of the general assembly of all Latin American bishops which met in Medellín, Colombia, in late 1968. This conference focused on the question of poverty, revolution and class conflict and the documents prepared for the conference led to intense and bitter discussions in the Catholic church. The final document condemned imperialism and the violence of capitalism. (Encyclopedia.com) 38 Part of the research included having interviews and or questionnaires with members of Positive Muslims. In these interviews it was commonly mentioned that Farid Esack proposed the name for the organization (other options were also proposed) that was later agreed and adopted. There was also agreement that he was also instrumental in coming up with the term “Theology of Compassion”. 39 Esack biography and theological journey has been extensively document in his work, Qur’an Liberation and Pluralism (1997) 74 the injustices of Apartheid, together with having been raised by a single mother in dire poverty, shaped his ethos and principles in fighting for justice. His ethos was further shaped by his traditional Islamic training at an Islamic University in Pakistan and his involvement in the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa. Internationally he is known as a Muslim liberation theologian, while also being categorized somewhat pejoratively in some of the more traditional Islamic circles as a “progressive” or “modernist” as a negative connotation attached to Islamic liberation theology.40

Esack was appointed by President Nelson Mandela as gender equality commissioner for his work on gender justice. More recently he was awarded a national honour, the Order of Luthuli (Silver) for “his brilliant contribution to academic research and to the fight against race, gender, class and religious oppression.” (South African Government, 2018). According to Esack (1997:83) an Islamic liberation theology derives its inspiration from the Qurʾān and the struggles of all the Prophets, and thus he argues that we need to follow the example of the Prophet Muhammad, and all the other Prophets (ibid), such as Jesus who located themselves at the margins of society. Furthermore, he states that Islamic Liberation theology’s foundational inspiration is seen in its engaging the Qurʾān and the example of the Prophets in a process of “shared and ongoing theological reflection for ever-increasing liberative praxis” (Esack 1997: 83).

Esack was not the first Muslim theologian to explicitly advocate an Islamic theology of liberation, although his work Qur’ān, Liberation and Pluralism (1997) seems to have become the foundational text of Islamic Liberation Theology. Asghar Ali Engineer’s (d. 2013), 1990 publication was titled “Islam and Liberation Theology: Essays on Liberative Elements in Islam” and the Egyptian philosopher Hassan Hanafi (1935- ), had published his reflections on the question of Islam and liberation as Theory and Practice of Liberation at the End of the XXth Century in 1988 already.

Kaloi Abdul Rehman (2017: 70) locates the notion of Islamic liberation theology with Prophet Muhammad, when he argues that Islamic liberation theology emerged when the Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet, elaborating that the Qur’an, like the Injīl revealed to Jesus, seeks to liberate people from all kinds of sufferings. As many historians who have written on the Sīrah

40 In a recent article Esack disavowed the term “Progressive Islam” and distanced himself from it. (2018) 75 the Prophet relays, the qur’anic revelations and accompanying decrees were an open challenge to the then ethnic tribal system of Mecca. A system noted in history for its oppression and dehumanization of the poor. Rehman (2017: 66) also notes and reaffirms what historians have indicated, that Islam, through the teachings and commandments of the Qur’an, denounced injustice and oppression, and condemned the prevailing social system of Mecca. The Qur’an thus, via Muhammad, according to Engineer (1990) proclaimed liberation, freedom, justice and equality.

Following the news, national and international, or simply having access to social media in today’s world provides insight into the injustice and discrimination rampant across the world against the oppressed and marginalised people, especially in the global south. Rehman (2017) argues that Qur’anic liberation theology is the best source and guide for liberation from all kinds of injustice and discrimination, since, in his analysis, it is in agreement with socio- economic balance, an equal social structure and assigns a high position to human dignity. Furthermore, it is for this reason that Islamic Liberation theologians consider faith to be an indispensable and vital stimulus for struggle against oppression and injustice at the grass roots level. When Islamic Liberation Theology meets HIV & AIDS – the result cannot be mere pity or even simple care but a responsible solidarity in praxis for justice to end the socio-economic conditions which allow HIV to spread and denies its victims access to health care. One of these was the “Theology of Compassion”, an offshoot of Islamic Liberation Theology, which had tied its colours so firmly to the mast of the struggle against apartheid.

CHAPTER FOUR

The Organization Positive Muslims: Between a Theology of Compassion and one of Liberation

4.1 Introduction Positive Muslim was responsible for a significant change in the discourse on Muslims and AIDS, locally and internationally. Until its emergence inside the Muslim community the only response was one of scorn, blame and disdain. Throughout the world those who actually worked with and in solidarity with PWLH&A’s as activists or part of the larger internal human rights and development agencies such as UNAIDS, UNICEF and UNDP, were often helpless when it came to the instrumentalization of Islam in this narrative of scorn, blame and disdain. This dominant discourse, underpinned by the work of Malik Badri, the Sudanese psychiatrist and Islamic scholar, was challenged by the establishment of Positive Muslims whose work and publications within a few years reached a vast international audience through exchange programs, international conferences and publications translated into a number of international languages including, Spanish, Kiswahili, Portuguese, and Indonesian.

This chapter considers how the organization in its founding narrative, objectives, composition, location and operation embodied what it publicly suggested it was about in relation to the more publicly proclaimed Theology of Compassion and the less often stated objective to have become an extension of Islamic Liberation Theology.

We look at the beginnings of Positive Muslims, its objectives as well as the motives of the persons behind its formation and some of those who later came to play a leadership role. Its location (that of its various layers of members, volunteers and clients and association, its local and international audience), and the impulses it fed into or responded to. It will then consider the operational style of the organization and the extent to which it reflected the core principles of Liberation Theology as outlined in the previous chapter.41

41 This chapter is indebted to and draws heavily on the account provided by Abdul Kayum Ahmed in his Masters dissertation for the University of the Western Cape (2003) - particularly Chapter Four which deals with an ethnography of Positive Muslims - for the data around the early years of the organization’s formation. 77

Chapter Four presents an analysis of the interviews with the funder or leading members of Positive Muslims who were able to and/or agreed to participate in this research. It must be noted that when I initially started with the research, I had much difficulty in locating and getting into contact with members of the organization, since after closure of the organization all of them had moved on to other projects, while some had also re-located abroad. For example, Kagee does a lot of work in Gaza, Palestine, and so he often travels; Ahmed lives and works in New York and his work also does not allow him too much free time, and given the time differences between SA and the US, connecting was not an easy task. Miller’s late-night work schedule together with my own transport and health challenges proved almost impossible to synchronise. I thus, considered changing the approach of the research that would exclude the need for interviews, and would rather focus on a discourse analysis instead. This would still involve analysing PM’S published material and research works already done on the organization and its members, and to therefrom thread out aspects of a theology of compassion. However, as my research progressed and developed, it became increasingly clear that this particular analytical approach would be significantly impoverished by the lack of data that engages the personal reflections of the key role players. Their experiential insights and reflexive thoughts were central considerations in making the argument that frames Positive Muslims as a praxis of and not just an articulation of a theology of compassion. It is important to note here that I purposefully excluded co-founder of Positive Muslims Esack as an interviewee given that he was my supervisor of this project although, his thoughts and ideas on Liberation Theology including his involvement in Positive Muslims were not unimportant forms of references that informed my interest in the subject matter. Careful attention was given to ensure avoiding any implicit and/or explicit influence over the conclusions I have drawn and the final outcome of my analysis. I thus considered the ethical implications, and chose to exclude him to ensure no conflict of interest.

4.2 The Establishment of Positive Muslims Positive Muslims was established in 2000, the same year that President Thabo Mbeki introduced controversial public health policies regarding HIV & AIDS (See Nattrass, & Kalichman, 2010 and Simelela, 2014). Mbeki, whose period in office (1999 - 2008), became known as the era of HIV & AIDS denialism, denied that AIDS was caused by HIV and regarded anti-retroviral medicines as “a poison”, preventing government support for supplying ARV drugs to HIV patients (ibid.) He is, thus, often held responsible for the preventable deaths 78 wherein almost 330000 South Africans died of HIV & AIDS, and or related conditions (Le Roux, 2013).

Besides the grim picture painted by the socio-political milieu of that time, adding to the weight of the problem was the prevalent negative ethico-socio-religious response present in the Muslim community, that too was filled with denialism, resistant, retributive rhetoric and a complete absence of any support as was detailed in Chapter One. This absence of support and the determination of one of its co-founders, Faghmeda Miller42 (1967 - ) to find – and if this were not possible, to create – such support served as one of the catalytic agents for the establishment of Positive Muslims (Ahmed, 2003, 71).

A detailed and somewhat personal narrative account of the formation and early organizational life of Positive Muslims is presented by Kayum Ahmed (2003), one of its co-founders who was then a BA student at the University of Cape Town and also served as the organization’s first honorary Director / Convenor (March 2000 - end 2003). This account traces the centrality and role of Faghmeda Miller - the first Muslim in South Africa to have publicly disclosed her HIV status - in its formation.43

The formation of the organization in 2000 is routinely ascribed to three co-founders - Miller, Ahmed and Esack44 (Ahmed, 2003, pp. 69-71) - and questions of a “leading co-founder” are not addressed in any of the literature dealing with the formation of the organization. This is partly due to the reluctance of the two males who have not identified as HIV positive, to claim

42 Miller first learnt in 1993 that she was HIV positive. Her journey as a person living with HIV and her contribution personally to the account of her story of discovering her HIV status, and how it impacted her life has been widely covered in the media (Malan 2013, Esack 2004, p. 12 and Karskens 1997, 23). Miller has also written and spoken on a number of first-person accounts detailing her life and struggles as an HIV activist. (UNAIDS 2013, Miller n.d. 1 and Miller n.d. 2) 43 Miller was awarded the Femina “Women of Courage” Award in 2000, and was nominated for “Women that made difference” in her community. Living her truth has helped inspire many people living with HIV & AIDS. She has and continues to address local and international HIV & AIDS conferences to build awareness and empower women in the fight against HIV & AIDS. At the time of writing (late 2019) Miller continues to run community interventions, support groups and offers counselling services for persons living with HIV. 44 Esack (1955-) was a leading Muslim activist in the struggle against apartheid and is the author of what may be regarded as the foundational text of Islamic Liberation theology, Qur’an, Liberation and Pluralism. At the time of the founding of Positive Muslims, he was serving as Commissioner for Gender Equality in the South African government. At subsequent stages of his association with Positive Muslims he was a professor at Xavier and Harvard Universities in the USA, where he drew students from there to collaborate with him on Positive Muslims related research and publication projects. 79 that privilege (Interview with Ahmed) and because - in some ways - the organization’s formation was the outcome of a convergence of Miller’s articulated needs and courage on the one hand and the responsiveness towards this, on the other by Ahmed and Esack.

When Miller became aware of her HIV status she felt “confused and alone” (interview with Miller). She had just lost her Malawian husband to a ‘strange’ disease when he died suddenly not long after they were married. She would discover, only after his death that he had died of AIDS, and she too was infected. With no support structures in her community, the Muslim community, she turned to a Christian support group for support. However, even though she felt supported there, she never felt she belonged.

“For me I think it was important to be around people of your own religion where you can discuss what the Qur'an says about certain diseases and stuff like that. Because I still had this belief that it was a curse and it was a sin. And only when I learnt from these Christian people that you know, they believed it wasn't a sin or a curse, I realised our Qur'an surely must also say something about it. And I started to feel very much out of place being surrounded by people of other faiths and not my own faith. And I just wanted to get out of there and maybe start my own group [...] (Miller, cited in Ahmed, 2003, 70)

From the personal account (https://www.positiveheroes.org.za/faghmeda-Miller/) of her journey with HIV activism it is apparent that her faith plays a very important role in her life, so it is understandable that she had a yearning to be among “her own”. To this end she approached the Muslim Judicial Council (est. 1945) who, she recounts, was indifferent to her needs. (Miller, cited in Ahmed, 2003, 70.)45

The narrative of the founding of Positive Muslims provides a good insight into some of the challenges between Islamic Liberation Theology as it is articulated in theory and how it is lived out in reality – at least in so far it concerns one of its key advocates, Farid Esack. According to Ahmed (2003: 69), he met Miller while working on a research project for Esack around Muslim AIDS activism in relation to women living with HIV & AIDS in Cape Town. In mid-1999

45 The Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) is the leading Muslim religio-legal authority in the Western Cape. It was primarily founded as such although it has had a relatively long history of also intervening in social and political matters. While it has never been infrastructurally equipped to deal with personal interventions beyond the domain of marital relations and divorces, it usually refers to individual cases to partner organizations such as the South African National Zakah Fund. Other than speaking about the indifference of the MJC, (cited in Ahmed, 2003, iv) Miller is not specific about who in the MJC she dealt with. It must be noted that in the Western Cape, this kind of unspecified accusatory reference to the MJC is quite common (Personal observation). 80

Esack had apparently heard an interview with Miller on the radio station wherein she declared her HIV status, becoming the first Muslim to publicly do so – and was keen to learn more - and possibly write about it. Ahmed was persuaded by Esack to shift the topic of his thesis from sex and sexuality in Islam to the impact of HIV & Aids on Muslims in the Western Cape (Ahmed, 2003, 69). Ahmed, inspired by Miller’s courage, tracked her down and sat down to talk to her. He found himself deeply moved by her experience that was filled with so much stigma and rejection that he felt obliged to do something (Interview with Ahmed). “I was desperate to help Miller …” he later recalled (Ahmed, 2003, 74).

In a working session with Esack, they confronted the moral question of doing research on persons living with HIV and AIDS while remaining indifferent at a concrete level of addressing the difficulties of those persons (Ahmed, 2003:71-72). This disengaged approach was anathema to the basic notions of liberation theology that both were familiar with and which – as we indicated earlier – Esack was a leading international advocate for.

After a meeting with Miller towards the end of 1999, both Ahmed and Esack suspended their research work, and in consultation with Miller, decided to concentrate their energies on support for Muslims living with HIV to actively work against their stigmatization (Interview with Ahmed, September 2019, Ahmed 2003:71).46 Initial organizational plans also involved the Muslim Youth Movement47 and at the second meeting of the small group held at this organization’s office in February 2000, the name ‘Positive Muslims’ was adopted. The interim structure of the organization consisted of an executive which comprised of three MYM members, Ahmed, Esack, Rukeya Cornelius and Miller.

4.3. Objectives of Positive Muslims and the Motivation of its Leadership Figures

46 Ahmed is currently a human rights lawyer and is the division director for Access and Accountability at the Open Society Public Health Program in New York where he leads the program’s global work on access to medicines and innovation. He also teaches socioeconomic rights as an adjunct faculty member at Columbia University Law School. Before joining the Open Society, Ahmed served as Chief Executive Officer of the South African Human Rights Commission from 2010 to 2015. He holds a Ph.D. in education from Columbia University as well as various degrees in law from the universities of Oxford (MS.t), Cape Town (LL.B.), and Leiden (LL.M.). In addition, he has degrees in anthropology (M.A.) and theology (B.A. Hons). 47 Ahmed (2003, 75-76) has documented the initial relationship between the MYM and Positive Muslims and its breakdown. MYM members who played some role in the earliest months of Positive Muslim’s formation were Yusuf Gamieldien (Regional Chairperson), Mohammed Groenewald (Regional secretary) and Dr Nisaar Dawood (National Secretary). 81

As is evident from the formative impetus of Miller’s needs, the initial most important objective of Positive Muslim was to provide support for Muslims living with HIV and to address the question of stigmatization – both objectives tying in neatly with Miller’s needs at that time. An interesting insight into the primarily personal and assistentialist nature of the organization’s earliest and subsequent orientation is also evident in the co-option of Miller’s brother, Fasli Miller, on to the Executive Committee, upon (Faghmeda) Miller’s suggestion.

“Fasli had been very supportive of his sister and she believed that he could play an important supportive role in the organization. In an interview with Faghmeda Miller (Ruiterwaght, 19 April 2003) she says that 'I think for me it was em, how can I say, I've never been out on my own doing something. One of them (her siblings) were always with me and for me it was maybe just a habit, you know, that they must be there. But after a while, when he (Fasli) resigned I was actually happy without telling (laughs). I was happy because I also realised that, you know, I cannot carry on expecting them to be there for me all the time [...] but I realised that this was like, I can say, my organization and not his and he had no place in it really.” (Ahmed. 2003, 72)

An interesting aspect of this personal and assistentialist impulse in the organization’s formation was the seeming absence or the undeclared presence of any ideological or serious theological considerations, something to which we will return later.

Fairly early on the organization’s life and through a workshopping process, (Ahmed, 2003: 73) it developed two focused areas of programs and activity 1) advocacy and awareness and 2) support for Muslims living with HIV. Later, research was added as a third area of focus. The selection of these areas indicate how it saw its mission in relation to both those living with HIV and AIDS, on the one hand, and the larger Muslim community on the other.

Other than the articulated objectives which emerged after discussion – a process commonly described in South Africa as workshopping – a second set of objectives can also be determined from the factors or ideas that propel the leading or driving personalities in their decision to form or to be involved with the organization. Some of these figures were forthcoming and articulated their own personal motives for being drawn to the organization in their own unique ways.

Fatima Noordien (1963-),48 a well-known community activist in Cape Town, who joined the organization in 2004 and much later served as its Director (2007-2009), was a family friend of the Millers. Noordien said that she was appalled when she “learnt of the treatment of Muslims who had died due the condition” (Interview with Noordien) and that this conflicted with her own deeply held conviction that “all people are [must be] dealt with humanely regardless of their race, gender, medical condition, etc.” (ibid,) For Noordien, ensuring that the “gross injustices inflicted upon Muslims infected and affected by HIV & AIDS be eradicated” (ibid.) further inspired her to join Positive Muslims.

Ashraf Kagee (1965-),49 a psychologist and public health scholar, was deeply interested and committed to humanitarian and human rights causes. (Interview with Kagee) He joined the organization in 2004 in response to its particular need for academic expertise on the prevalence of HIV & AIDS among Muslims in South Africa and at various periods served as its Chair and Executive Member until the organization closed in 2011. For him joining the organization, was an extension of a life-long commitment (not Kagee’s words) to fighting injustice in areas that intersected with his own development as a student, academic and citizen (interview with Kagee). He was aware of the organization’s ideological underpinnings in Islamic Liberation Theology and the Theology of Compassion and appreciative of them, 50

I approached it [my involvement in the organization] mainly from a social justice, humanitarian, not anchored in religion as much but anchored in a philosophy of creating conditions for people to achieve social equality economic equality, to resist oppression, to resist discrimination, I’ve never really thought through it from a theological perspective. […] It’s a question of justice, how can we allow these kinds

48 Noordien is a well-known community activist in Cape Town having long focused on women’s rights and ending all forms of social discrimination. She was the first female to serve on the regional executive membership of the Muslim Youth Movement. Noordien is a teacher, a single mother of two - and currently serves as honorary director of an organization called Positively Muslims – an organization that she and Miller established in 2014, three years after the closure of Positive Muslims. 49 Kagee’s political awakening came in the 1980s when he, along with many other students, participated in protests and demonstrations against the apartheid regime. A Distinguished Professor in Psychology at the University of Stellenbosch and fiction writer, his current work is broadly located at the nexus of psychology and public health and is specifically focused on mental health among persons living with HIV and psychological and structural factors influencing adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART). 50 The study led by Kagee proved to be revealing and informative, in that the results suggested that HIV & AIDS was an important and real issue amongst Muslims, and that much work still needed to be done in the area of HIV & AIDS and Muslims. Most importantly, in the absence of preventative measures being put in place, the chances are greater for the condition to spread among Muslims, and other religious assemblages. See Kagee, S.A; Simbaya, L; Toefy, Y; and Kalichman, Seth. 2004. The Prevalence of HIV in Three Predominantly Muslim Residential Areas in the Cape Metropole. Cape Town: Positive Muslims. 83

of things to happen, that was sort of the original mission of the organization, to ensure justice and dignity for the marginalized, in this case Muslim people with HIV & AIDS. (Interview with Kagee)

Rehana Kader (1968-) got to know of the organization as a clinical psychologist who had a Muslim patient who had contracted HIV – possibly due to his substance abuse habits. “'This was a shocking reality for me [...]; l had heard about Aids and read about it in the newspapers, but it wasn't a reality for me until one of my clients was HIV positive”. (cited in Ahmed 2003) She had been providing her services to a Muslim rehabilitation centre where he was in a recovery programme and was troubled by what she strongly felt was a misrepresentation of Islam (Interview with Kader). Kader had no prior Muslim organizational experience and was introduced to Positive Muslims by Esack. From her reflections on her motives for joining Positive Muslims, it is evident that she viewed this as an extension her unarticulated theology of compassion and a religious home, even refuge. (Kader cited in Ahmed, 2003 101)

“In fact she indicated that she 'clearly stayed away' from Muslim organizations since she found them to be 'conservative' and 'orthodox' and 'it didn't feel right to be part of those organizations.' Her attraction to Positive Muslims was based on the fact that it approached issues very differently compared to other Muslim organizations. According to Kader (Observatory, 23 April 2003), 'it was the acceptance of who I am as I am' and the fact that existing members of Positive Muslims gave her a 'very different understanding of Islam,' that made her get involved in the organization.” (Ibid.)

Of the persons interviewed for this study, Kader, Ahmed, Noordien and Esack made a conscious connection between their own theological locations and decision to form or join Positive Muslims and that their own life experiences – particularly an aversion to judgmentalism - have shaped their approaches to Islam.

Kader's own marginalisation as a woman due to her unwillingness to conform to mainstream Muslim thinking led to certain forms of isolation and discrimination within Muslim society. Kader therefore sees some parallels between her own marginalisation and the marginalisation of people living with HIV/Aids because according to her, 'there is a sense of not belonging.' While it may simply be easier to conform to mainstream Muslim thinking, Kader believes that if she were to change her approach 'then I'm not true to myself.' Furthermore, Kader states that 'Positive Muslims is giving me that space to explore my identity and normalising who I am. (Ahmed, 2003. 71)

We have already provided an account of Ahmed’s introduction to Positive Muslim above. On a more self-critical note, he writes 84

“Upon reflection, it seems as if my own reasons for wanting to help were partly selfish and partly altruistic. Having been involved in a number of student and community-based organizations […] I had always derived a great sense of personal fulfilment and accomplishment from being involved in these organizations. By becoming involved in a support group for HIV positive Muslims, I guess I was hoping that my selfish need to feel some sense of fulfilment and accomplishment would be satisfied. This need stemmed from an emptiness I discovered that same year after realising that I belonged to about eighteen different organizations simultaneously. I had become a bit of an organizational junky wanting to take on as many causes as I possibly could to fill the emptiness or void that existed in my life. At an altruistic level, I felt a very basic but profound need to help.” (Ahmed, 2003. 71)

In my own interview with Ahmed he also emphasizes that, in addition to the more personal impulses to assist Miller, he deeply appreciated the “the political emphasis on HIV and AIDS, the mobilization around HIV and AIDS as a political issue”.

About Esack’s role in the formation of Positive Muslim, Ahmed says that “Esack's entire life appears to have been a struggle against injustice - the injustice of poverty, racism and sexism. Getting involved in the setting up of Positive Muslims therefore appears to simply be a continuation of his struggle against injustice”. (2003, 107) After about seven years in academia and in government and of absence from organized Muslim community life “Esack's decision to get involved in a Muslim structure such as Positive Muslims […]” (ibid.). In the same interview with Ahmed, Esack indicated,

“that there were two reasons why he became involved in Positive Muslims: firstly, there was an immediate need to 'reach out' despite his own anxiety about getting involved in Muslim issues. This need to do something about HIV/Aids in the Muslim context was far greater than his need to remain at a safe distance from Muslim issues. Secondly, he realised that the Aids epidemic was something that the majority of Muslims were not interested in, and so there was enough 'safe space' to set up Positive Muslims without getting caught up in Muslim politics.” (Ahmed, 2003, 107)

Based on the interviews with the leadership figures of Positive Muslims one can assert the following about their motives and the organization’s objectives:

a) It was largely a continuation of lives of service to society underpinned by both an anger towards injustice and discrimination on the one hand and a quest for a more just and compassionate society, on the other. 85

b) While this service was now expressed inside a Muslim organization all of them continued to be engaged with organizations outside the Muslim community; both as an extension of their involvement with Positive Muslims and separate from it, as activist individuals. c) They came from the Muslim community with various levels of religiosity and theological commitments or even awareness, but with a clear and basic appreciation that the Islam that they followed or identified with was one that demanded compassion towards and solidarity with the marginalized and oppressed. d) The formation and/or identification of the organization were both a creative and compassion move on the part of the interviewees as well as a refuge from what some of the interviewees regarded as unsavoury (my interpretation) approaches to Islam51 or engagement with the Muslim community that was “safe’ and relatively distant from ordinary ‘community organizational politics’. e) The theological/ideological impulse of the organization was not in the forefront of most of the interviewees. While they appreciated what they heard about it and could easily articulate their understanding of a Theology of Compassion or of Liberation, only some individuals such as Noordien, Ahmed, and Esack could be said to have been driven by these. The fact that Esack and Ahmed, even when they did not occupy the position of Chairperson or Directors, remained central to the organization’s leadership contributed in large measure to the fact that these notions remained central to the organization until its closure in 2011.

4.4. Composition and Location In the more than ten years of its existence, the organization remained fairly stable and consistent in its ideological, theological and organizational orientation as well as socio-geographical location with no significant or dramatic changes or developments. Both examining the material produced by and about the organization, as well as the interviews conducted with former executive members and staff, suggests that the inevitable personal and/or personality differences were usually carefully managed and that these never translated into visible differences in approaches to dealing with HIV, the Muslim community, or ideas on Islam. I will argue that this was largely due to the fact that the organization was tightly controlled

51 This included traditional Muslim and/or Islamic approaches to the question of gender justice, women and same sex-sexuality. 86 ideologically and operationally by its core leadership, at various stages comprising combinations of Esack, Ahmed, Kader, Stuurman and Kagee with the first two - also co- founders - being the consistent personalities throughout its existence.

4.4.1 Socio-Economic, Gender and Sexual Orientation HIV Status of Pioneer & Leadership Figures. Initially comprised only of an Executive Committee with a loose flexible interim constitution, later the organization comprised of four levels of members i) The Executive Committee ii) Remunerated Staff iii) Interns and iv) Volunteers. The Director of the organization always served as an Ex-Officio member of the Executive Committee which functioned as a typical NGO board responsible for oversight and policy while the Director headed and oversaw day to day operations carried out by staff and interns.52

Ahmed, served as its first honorary Director / Convenor from March 2000 until the end of 2003 when Esack, then on leave from Xavier University in Cincinnati, USA, was appointed the Acting Director. Esack was succeeded by Rehana Kader a clinical psychologist as the organization’s first full-time Director who served in that capacity for 5 years.53 As Positive Muslims grew and gained national and internal recognition, the organization required more human resources. (Interview with Hassiem) Staff and interns were recruited and new executive members were co-opted by the three founding members to join the group. These included the following individuals:

• Rukeya Cornelius, then a small business owner. • Dr Aslam Fataar, then a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Western Cape and a member of the Muslim Youth Movement.54

52 From a perusal of some of the Minutes of the organization, it appeared that staff members who headed particular portfolios, attended Board meetings only for the purpose of delivering and discussing their reports. (Positive Muslims Minutes dated 21 December 2009) 53 Kader, from Cape Town, South Africa, earned a BA Honours in Psychology from the University of the Western Cape, where she also completed her Master's in Psychology in 2000. Currently, she is in private practice and lectures and supervises students at the University of the Western Cape. She is a clinical psychologist practicing at Life Vincent Pallotti Hospital and Rondebosch Medical Centre in Cape Town. She works with a wide range of clinical disorders including the treatment of Substance Use Disorders. A certified Global Master Trainer for training health professionals internationally on the Universal Prevention and Treatment Curriculum for Substance Use Disorders, she served as the director of Positive Muslims for six years. 54 Fataar’s membership of the Executive Committee was for a relatively short period; Miller estimates that it was a period of six month in 2001. (Interview with Miller) 87

• Dr Muhammed Adam, then Head of the Department of Psychology at the University of the Western Cape. • Mariam Stuurman, then a researcher at the Medical Research Council of South Africa who later served for three years as Chairperson of the Executive Committee. • Amina Noordien, a home manager. • Dr Ashraf Kagee, then a lecturer and researcher at the University of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape. • Wiedaad Dollie, a psychologist, who assisted with the development of Positive Muslims’s first support group for the HIV positive. • Fatima Noordien, a schoolteacher and a leading member of the Muslim Youth Movement who later served as the organization’s director

The following observations may be made about the social, economic, gender and sexual orientation location and the HIV status of its leadership figures.

a) Other than Miller and Amina Noordien, all the other founding members and figures who served on the leadership of the organization were either academics or professionals who came from or had by the time of its formation moved into higher economic income brackets. b) In so far as public knowledge goes, with the very visible exception of Miller, none of the figures on the executive committee or on the staff ever identified as HIV positive. c) None of the persons in the leadership of the organization other the Ahmed, made any statements referring to their own sexual orientation. The question of same-sex sexuality, and more, specifically HIV transmission in the cases of and men who have sex with men (MSM) loomed very large in any discussion on AIDS and a number of volunteers and members of the support group (later referred to as clients) self-identified as gay. While related questions were addressed in the organization’s programs and literature and the organization came across as queer friendly, (Carr, 2011, 108) there is no record of the organization dealing with it as an internal issue. 55 d) In terms of gender, two of the co-founders are men and the Executive Committee itself was chaired by them at various stages. For a shorter period, approximately 3 months,

55 The question of organization’s position on men who have sex with men (MSM) and homosexuality is discussed later in this chapter 88

Ashraf Kagee, another man chaired it and for the last three years of its existence, it was chaired by Mariam Stuurman. Of the three remunerated full-time Directors, two (Fatima Noordien and Rehana Kader) were women, and one was male (Raoul Swart, who served for little more than a year). While, there are no records or recollection of the organization’s own internal gender policies – articulated or otherwise - being discussed or vented among the leadership or ordinary membership women were visible in the organization’s leadership.

4.4.2 Socio Geographical Location All the initial meetings of the executive committee – at least for the first eighteen months - were held at Esack’s apartment in Rondebosch, a predominantly white middle class area in Cape Town. Its records were all kept here and its first full time administrator, Rukeya Cornelius,56 also operated from here for more than a year until the organization established its first fully operational office in Observatory, also a middle class but slightly more racially mixed area and in close proximity to public transport. About five years after their sojourn here, the organization moved to Wynberg, a Muslim coloured majority lower middle-class area slightly more out of the way from the Cape Flats where the majority of the people that the organization served – referred to as clients in the organization’s internal documents - came from (Interview with Hassiem).

Individual clients usually came to the office for counselling although home visits – usually in the poorer areas of Cape Town - were also common throughout the organization’s existence. Ahmed (2003) provides moving accounts of such visits and of the bathing and burial of deceased members of the support group in their homes in some of the poorest areas of Cape Town when ordinary community designated ‘bathers of the deceased’ (“toekamandie” pl. “toekamandies”) refused to get close to the bodies and provided instructions to the Positive Muslims members from a distance. (Ahmed, 2003, 84)

While the hub of its operational activities were not in areas where the Muslim PLWH&A’s resided, many of their outreach and awareness-raising did take place there. Taking mainly the form of workshops and public gatherings (sometimes in houses and at other times in

56 Cornelius had until then been a small business owner and Personal Assistant to the Director of the Treatment Action Campaign, Zackie Achmat. She currently serves in the leadership of Sonke Gender Justice. 89 community halls), some of the venues included, Bonteheuwel, Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Mitchell’s Plain, Delft, and, very significantly, Pollsmoore Prison where the organization had a program specifically for Muslim Prisoners.

4.5. Positive Muslim’s Community and Audience Positive Muslim’s primary communities that it saw itself servicing were a) local Muslim Persons Living with HIV&AIDS. b) the local Muslim community that needed to be made aware of the reality of HIV in its midst, to take measures to spread its prevention and of the need to respond to those affected by it with compassion. Both prior to the establishment of the organization in the course of carrying out their work they encountered and co-operated with other religious and areligious activists, NGO’s and government entities who were also involved in AIDS related work and activism. This sector thus became the third community that Positive Muslims served, or may be said to have “performed for”57. At the initial stage of its organizational life all of these communities/audiences were local (i.e., Western Cape).58 By the third year of its existence though, word of its work and ‘progressive approach’ had spread widely at an international level its community effectively and additionally became all three of the earlier ones. A brief overview of its engagements and interventions at these different levels provides significant insights into how its theology manifested itself.

4.5.1 Muslim Persons Living with HIV & AIDS (MPLH&A) The organization’s primary form of support for MPLH&As was in the form of personal counselling both individually and through the support group which at various times met weekly and bi-weekly – usually out of office hours to respect the anonymity that many members preferred. While the MPLH&As were referred to as ‘clients’ in the organization’s internal documents, they were referred to by their first names by the staff member who worked with them directly as inside the organization as “members of our support group” (Interviews with Hassiem and Kader).

57 I use the term ‘performance’ in the meaning of “to carry something into effect-whether it be a story, an identity, an artistic artefact, a historical memory, or an ethnography”. (Kapchan, 1995, 108)

58 A number of PLWAs from other parts of the country also communicated and were assisted by the organization. Furthermore, there was some, albeit, limited interaction with the Muslim AIDS Project (MAP) an organization established in Gauteng by the Jamiatul `Ulama (council of Theologian) which focused on HIV prevention though abstinence from sex outside marriage. 90

As indicated earlier, the vast majority of members of the Support Group came from the poorer working-class communities and were often desperately in need of material support. (Carr, 2011, 105). Such assistance was provided through an organizational agreement with the South African National Zakah fund (SANZAF). There were often tensions between the expectations of members of the support group and the organization’s staff around material expectations from the organization which was forced into a careful balancing acting between support and creating a dependence on the organization. While this is a common challenge for any organization that claims to be in support, it is a particularly difficult challenge that claims to be “in solidarity with”. (Interviews with Hassiem and Kader).59 On the one hand, with one exception and for a period of a little more than a year, none of the staff were HIV positive and, as Carr (2011: 104) points out, all came from relatively stable professional and financial backgrounds60 and, on the other, they empathised with those whom they reached out to and who expected more than what they could offer.

“While not always spoken about explicitly, class was an ever-present dynamic that influenced the relationships between these two groups. Staff were always positioned as service providers, mediating access to resources and skills; clients were almost always the recipients of those services and resources. At some point, clients expressed resentment at not having their more immediate needs met by the organization. The inverse was true for some staff members who felt strongly that resource mobilisation and resource distribution was not in the scope of organization's work. This was a difficult situation that left often staff feeling conflicted, and yet powerless to effect any real change. It is important to interrogate the role of class in this dynamic, and to address the problem of the clients' limited agency”. (Carr, 2011, 105)

Carr does not address the question of how “the clients' limited agency” should be addressed. However, the justice advocacy aspect of the organization’s theology was clearly absent when it came to actual engagement with members of the Support Group for there is no indication that the underlying questions of the structural causes of poverty and more specifically the relationship between poverty and disease, were ever addressed with them, nor that any attempts were made to involve them in mobilizing politically in the various campaigns for access to

59 Ahmed recalls a request from a member of the Support Group that the room in the organization’s Observatory office used for prayers and quiet meditation be converted into a room for her accommodation. The room was later converted into a workshop space where members of the Support Group were trained in small craft-making which the organization sold as form supplementary income for these members. (Interview with Ahmed) 60 Kader and Hassiem both pointed out that there were exceptions to this and that the organization had a number of clients who came from middle class and even upper middle-class backgrounds. However, these clients never joined the Support Groups. (Interviews with Kader and Hassiem) 91 health care and antiretrovirals which a number of other organizations such as the Treatment Action Campaign61 were engaged in.

4.5.2. Muslim Community Like all religious communities, the local Muslim community wherein Positive Muslims function is varied, complex and disaggregated. They span the entire demographic of the Western Cape. Different parts of these communities presented their unique challenges for Positive Muslims who by the nature of the HIV pandemic and their own declared raison d’etre, had to focus on some, manage others, and ignore the rest.

4.5.3 Race & Class From a racial-ethnic perspective the major part of the community identifies as of Malay- Coloured origin followed but those of Indian origin and the African-Black community who are relatively new two Islam, having entered as converts in the last three decades. Most of these South African Blacks come from the Eastern Cape although a number have resided in the Western Cape as Muslims for more than fifty years. In the post-apartheid era, we have also seen more migration to South Africa and refugees and immigrants without proper documentation from countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Somalia are visible in some predominantly Muslim areas such as Fordsburg, Mayfair and Gatesville, and are now contributing to South Africa’s growing Muslim community.

While the middle class may often appear more visible in the public through the social position that they occupy and their presence on governments, social organizations, businessman, and media figures, most of the poor go about their lives unnoticed and unattended in the poorer townships usually with the local imam or a secondment from a slightly more upmarket areas being the interlocutor for them and the dominant religious authority.

4.5.4 Politics In terms of party politics, most Muslim in the area support the Democratic Alliance, a white liberal party rather than the predominantly black ANC. The minority Black African inhabitants of the province largely support the African National Congress.

4.5.5 Religion The community can be described as ‘traditional’, conservative, Sunni, with a good knowledge base in traditional Islam. Overall this traditionalism is carried out lightly with a full awareness that they are living a shared space with others in the township, factory, office and even in the same household with someone who does not share the same faith or the same approach to that faith. In the poorer areas people would tend to hold more traditional views but are more flexible in the more legalistic practices such as double checking the gelatine contents of food products to ensure that it is halal or in sexual relations before marriage. Among the middle classes, sexual relations outside marriage would be equally common but with greater access to birth control medications and safer abortion. Both sectors, though, would tend to hold fairly conservative professed views on sex and sexuality, same sexuality and sex outside marriages. While these deeply held beliefs rarely translate into practice, they do not prevent the community from not only defending them vigorously but to get seriously agitated when presented with other perspectives which speak more directly to the practice.

On the theological and credal fronts, the mainstream community felt seriously challenged by the entry of Ahmedis and Qadianis in the sixties and seventies and the Shi’ism in the later seventies through to the current moment (early 2020). The established Sunni Muslim leadership (all the different vying organizations) largely succeeded in framing the first two as outside the pale of Islam, while the battle with the latter is a more uphill one with many Muslims accepting them or indifferent to the questions of religious dogma. Leading Shi’i figures are routinely seen at mainstream Muslim events, sometimes even as speakers although there are still fierce undercurrents of contestation taking place.62

4.5.6 Religious Authority and Challenges to Orthodoxy Since the last fifty years various tendencies and smaller groups have made significant inroads to challenge the hegemony of traditional Sunni Islam largely supervised and controlled through the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC). They have taken the form of quasi alternative religio-

62 At the time of Positive Muslims existence “the Ahmadi-Qadiani issue” as it was popularly referred to had largely died down. The question of the emergence of Shi’ism and their growth was, however, much more alive and controversial. The organization’s ability to get its work done and quietly navigate these sectarian issues is evidenced in its employment of a prominent Shi’ah activist, Nuraan Osman to its staff. It’s last Director, Raoul Swart is also a member of this community. Furthermore, the contribution of Mawlana Sayyed Aftab Haider, the province’s leading Shi’ah and the imam of the country’s largest Shi’i mosque, is acknowledged in the organization’s “HIV, AIDS and Islam – A Workshop Manual Based on Compassion, Responsibility and Justice’ (Esack, 2007, v) 93 judicial authorities such as the Majlis al-Ashura al-Islami (Ashura), The Islamic Council of South Africa (ICSA), and the Muslim Assembly Cape (MAC). Others have challenged basic notions of Sunni orthodoxy, the dominant form of Islam in the Cape for more than 300 years. These include the Ahmadi and Qadiani movements and more recently, in the last thirty years, Ithna `Ashari Shi’ah community.

Despite the intermittent assaults on its legitimacy, the MJC have survived as the pre-eminent religious authority in the region. This is largely due to its ability to hold together a rather disparate group of varying or not so serious scholarly qualifications, and theological orientation on the one hand and some nifty political manoeuvring with the country’s ruling party, the African National Congress, on the other. Their own position of authority requires that any newcomer to the field of Muslim activism - if they want to be taken seriously - have to contend with the MJC’s authority and work with it or around it. The MJC, however, has never had any coherent ideological or theological position and under the guise of the Islamic legal principle of ḥifẓ al-din (preservation of religion) they usually went with the ebb and flow (Bangstad and Fataar, 2010, 817-831) of the dominant political tide.

The MJC was a crucial audience to have on one’s side, either actively, or at least to not resist one’s programs. Positive Muslims thus had frequent meetings with them, explain their work and the need for it. For a three-year period, the organization had also employed a full-time cleric, Shaykh Ismail Qcamane who was active on the MJC and engaged the service of another prominent Muslim scholar, Mawlana Zakariyyah Philander, to examine some Islamic legal questions related to HIV and AIDS. More importantly it organized several usually poorly attended workshops specifically tailored to suit the needs of `ulama, both with the intention of educating them and encouraging them to address the issue with their congregations. This attempt at sustained engagement with the “`ulama did not really meet with much success” according to Hassiem and was quietly terminated (Interview with Hassiem). First, those who did commit to address the matter with their congregations, often, reluctantly admitted later, were unwilling to do so more than once, because they feared being suspected of being HIV positive themselves. Second, the more reports of hell and brimstone awaiting fornicators who are now being punished by God, sermons in mosques about HIV and AIDS filtered back to Positive Muslims, the more convinced the organization became that silence was far more preferable from religious leaders.

Despite never criticizing the MJC or the religious leadership in a direct manner, from its stated objectives and all of the literature that it produced, it is evident that Positive Muslims actively, but too brazenly, subverted the dominant notions of religious orthodoxy. They were in fact, engaged in the liberating theology from a privileged class.

4.5.7 Ideological From inside the Sunni community – and presumably inside the other communities as well - there have been serious ideological and theological challenges in the last 25 years, with some of these challenges even preceding the founding of the country’s democracy. Since the 1950s63 there has been a growing movement led by middle class businessmen, students and academics to challenge the clerics’ sole mandate to interpret Islam. Starting off with a number of individuals associated to the Arabic Study Circle (est. 1950) and a few individuals scattered all over the country, the sixties saw a move to approach the Qur’an directly without depending on the exegeses of the `ulama. This was the first wave of what may be described as liberal or modernist Islam in South Africa which was further concretized by the Muslim Youth Movement (est. 1970) in the earlier years of its formation. Its subsequent move towards what was referred to as the “Islamic Movement’ saw a more conservative Islamist shift in its thinking along the lines articulated by Sayed Qutb, Hassan Al-Banna, and the Jama’ati Islami Pakistan. Even this manifestation of Islamism was tempered by the general South African ethos of religious pluralism and the constitutional rights of all communities to be treated equally. This space created by the early Muslim dissenters and the much maligned MYM created the space for notions of Islamic Feminisms, Islamic Liberation Theology and a Theology of Compassion to emerge in the eighties, and nineties as we discussed in detail in Chapter Three. Much as the traditional scholars wanted to push-back against these developments in Islamic thought, they were severely hindered by two factors; a) their own desperation to share in the limelight of a new South Africa and b) a growing sense of the irrelevance of the body of male clerics and theologians who were not engaged in the daily challenges facing ordinary Muslim which included, gangsterism, drug abuse, gender violence and Muslim dying of AIDS.64

63 Founded in 1950 the earliest South African group to bypass the agency of the clerics and attempting to study the Qur'an with an eye on its social relevance was the Durban-based Arabic Study Circle. (Jeppie, 2007) 64 During the last decade, the MJC has embarked on a number of paths breaking social initiatives. In 2017 its then President, Ighsaan Hendricks, who was an ardent advocate of Fiqh al-Aqalliyat, (jurisprudence of minorities) said in an interview with the local community radio station Voice of the Cape “that ‘we [the MJC] can no longer be reduced only to ceremonial duties. We are now compelled to give guidance on more than religious issues’ (cited in Bangstad and Fataar, 2017, 82) 95

4.5.8 Gender As is the case in most societies and more particularly traditional ones, South African Muslims face multiple forms of gender discrimination and even violence as the norm. Incidents of marital rape, violent abuse, gender violence as a weapon of war are just localized expression of this. The South African Muslim community is not exception to the near universal appreciation of men as having some form of qiwamah (variously translated as responsibility for or over-lordship over women). While there has been a significant crop of women who have served pioneering roles in business, civic matters and more particular in anti-colonial and apartheid resistance, they have had restively any role in the sharing of religious discourse. It is only with the formation of the Muslim Youth Movement and more particularly, their Gender Desk, and the establishment of the Call of Islam that gender justice for Muslim women was brought to the forefront of Muslim discourse. This invited much bitter controversy in the community and scathing denunciation from the religious leadership.

The issue of Islam and gender justice and the disproportionate impact of HIV on women were significant aspects of the Positive Muslims’ work65 and, as Carr (2011) has shown, the organization

[…] challenged stereotyped images of Muslim women through its academic endeavours, publications, policies, workshops, discussions, events, services and other interventions. The organization does not dictate how women should configure their identities as Muslims or Muslim women. What the research also showed was that Muslim identities are fluid, and that Muslim women working at Positive Muslims constantly mediated and negotiated their enactment of agency, religiosity and activism. (Carr, 2011, 101)

However, this is not to suggest that the organization itself was the embodiment of non-sexism.

Even within the Positive Muslims workplace setting, Kader [then Director] also feels that her authority is sometimes undermined by the two women staff members since they respond more enthusiastically to Esack's authority. While

65 The organization took a conscious decision to prioritize women in its work for the following reasons: UNAIDS statistics had shown that far more women than men were infected with HIV in South Africa, the majority of volunteers and executive members were women, there was a tendency to focus more strongly on women's issues, it was considered “more strategic to focus on women as opposed to both men and women” (Ahmed, 2003, 81)

Kader attributes the undermining of her authority to her belief that Esack is a powerful leadership figure, she also suspects that it has to do with the fact that she is a woman. (Ahmed, 2003, 105)

Ahmed, comments on this as follows:

Despite the organization's adoption of progressive Muslim values at an ideological level, it is evident that these values which has a strong gender justice component, has not filtered down to all our employees and members. Kader's experiences are therefore important in that they show the incongruity between the progressive norms and values we have adopted at an ideological level, and our inability to translate these norms and values into practice. It highlights the fact that as we struggle to challenge the orthodox norms and values articulated by religious leaders outside our office, we continue, at some levels, to hold on to these orthodox notions of gender inside our office. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that Kader's experiences of gender bias, inside the Positive Muslims office at least, are as a result of actions by women staff members. She never indicated that she was treated differently because of her gender by any male employees or male members. (Ahmed, 2003, 105)

4.5.9 Sexuality Earlier we indicated that all socio-economic classes and theological tendencies, Sunni, Shi’i, etc., tend to hold fairly conservation professed/declared66 views on sex and sexuality, same sexuality and sex outside marriage. While these deeply held beliefs rarely translate into practice, this does not prevent the community from not only defending the traditional views vigorously but to also get seriously agitated when presented with other perspectives which speak more directly to the practice. This agitation is even more dire when the counter discourse is framed in Islamic language.

This is particularly the case when it comes to same sex-sexuality. The universally articulated discourse of Muslim religious leadership condemns same-sex sexuality and does not make a distinction between orientation and physical expression thereof in sexual relationships or marriage unions – a position becoming more common in some parts of the western world. (Brown, 2016 and Qadhi, 2009). This notwithstanding, the Cape Town Muslim community generally tolerates the presence of LBTQI persons in their midst without any significant social censure or discomfort. In some more defined roles – which explicitly and visibly diminished their masculinity in a patriarchal society - such as a male hairdresser preparing the bride’s hair,

66 My own observations are that many Muslims tend to be somewhat tentative in private on their sympathy for people who identify as gay or a family member or a close person that they may recognize as such or what is confided in them about their sexuality. In public though, amongst other Muslims they often still go along with the articulated position that it is not permissible in Islam. 97 or a male actor playing a camp role in theatre, their individual presence will be welcomed. Their presence may even be explicitly acknowledged with reference to their sexuality in general company as long as it is done in a playful and humorous manner – bracketed off from “proper conversation” or discourse. In the latter domain, the “clear Islamic line” is always expected to hold sway. While social discrimination is proscribed by the country’s constitution, many LQBTQ persons still face discrimination of various kinds in their families and places of employment

HIV was initially primarily identified with the gay men throughout the world.67 This was also the case when South Africans first encountered it through word of mouth and the media. The extent of the spread of the virus nationally and the larger population’s encounter with PLWAH&S’ made it clear that in Africa it was largely a heterosexual pandemic. The association with homosexuality, however, persisted.

“While HIV and AIDS had been noted in sexually active heterosexual groups in central African countries from the earliest days of the epidemic, popular opinion that HIV was largely contained to gay communities endured well into the 2000s. This line of thinking had stalled education and prevention efforts in the U.S. and abroad.”

While Positive Muslims, in its awareness campaigns, persisted with the message that the condition is not synonymous with homosexuality, it was welcoming space for all – including those who identified as LGBTQ. In its literature the organization gently but clearly challenged the obsession with sexual orientation. However, publicly, as Carr states (2001:108) it maintained a rather ambiguous position on the question of Islam’s tolerance or otherwise of same-sexuality. The following excerpt under the heading “Sex is OK” from their publication, “HIV, AIDS & Islam Reflections based on Compassion, Responsibility & Justice” (2004) is a good illustration of how the organization navigated controversial issues, pushing a certain perspective indirectly without drawing direct criticism;

“Sex, like our existence, is not something that requires external validation. No human being should feel compelled to justify to another human being why he or she

67 In December 1981 The New York Times reporting on the first serious study on the emergence of what later came to be described as HIV & AIDS released on that day, “described a cluster of cases in which usually harmless viruses and bacteria can produce fatal illnesses, almost exclusively among homosexual men” (New York Times, Dec. 10, 1981). 98

is here in this life and deserves to continue being. Our sexuality is a part of who we are and when we rejoice in our existence, we rejoice in all dimensions thereof.

In some cultures, for example, flat noses, or brown skins – unless acquired under an expensive tanning machine or on a nice Mediterranean beach – are not very much appreciated. Our flat or sharp noses and brown or light skins are parts of who we are. Rather than turning flat noses or brown skins into problems, those critical of them should reflect on their inability to rejoice in their own sharp noses or their pale skins. It is useful to ask why we feel so insecure in our long noses or pale skins that we have to be obsessed with other people’s flat noses or dark skins. Who in society really benefits when lighter skin colours are given preference over darker ones?

However, while as human beings none of us has to justify our own existence to anyone else; if we recognize that we are created by Allah then we also recognize that we are sacred beings. It becomes important for us, if we want to fulfil the divine purpose behind our creation, to ask more profound questions about our existence. This struggle, though, is an ongoing one that only ends with our departure from this world. It asks how we can continue to try to make sense of Allah’s will for us and how we continue to try to fulfil the objectives behind our creation.

Acknowledging the presence of hunger and of food as part of the Divine Scheme says nothing about the ways whereby one sustains oneself. In the same way that all of us have the right to enjoy our food, so too do we have the right to sexual enjoyment. In the same way that we continue to ask questions about the best way of consuming halal food, how to deal with this in situations where Muslims are in a religious minority, what the permissibility of food of the ahl al-kitab (people of the book such as Christians and Jews) means today, how we continue to learn and benefit from new understandings of compassion to animals, etc., so too must we raise new questions about sex, sexuality and sexual fulfilment and open ourselves to new insights.” (Positive Muslims, 2004, 37-38)

Given that staff members rather than the executive members were at the coal face of the organization, as Carr notes (2008, 108), staff members were “often questioned by family and community members about their association with the organization and its alignment (or non- alignment) with Islamic principles. The issue of homosexuality was particularly contentious because, while this sexual orientation is generally viewed as unacceptable in terms of Islamic principles, the organization has chosen not to reveal its position on the issue.”

4.5.10 Community of HIV Activists and NGOs By the very nature of its work and the existence of a plethora of other entities in both government and civil society working in the field of HIV and AIDS, the organization inevitably developed close working relationships with them. The fact that its vision and values largely overlapped with most of the organizations – locally and abroad - made it a cherished partner.

While Positive Muslims at its initial formation did not consciously set itself out to be become a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) the structure of governance that it created, the need for a bank account and organizational accountability all contributed to it becoming just that with all the associated trappings such as annual budgets, operational plans, disciplinary procedures, attendance records and policies etc. All of these were intensified when the organization first received foreign donor funding in 2003. Its organization ethos may, in fact, be separated in two distinct phases; the pre- and post-donor funding. Ahmed explains how the organization was funded at its initial stages:

While we received limited funding for specific projects from the Department of Health, the rest of our funding came from individual Muslims themselves. We had taken a decision to make Muslims financially and socially responsible for HIV/Aids by soliciting individuals for financial support instead of seeking funding from donor organizations. The process of visiting individuals and asking them to fill in debit order forms was excruciating and time consuming. After a few months of constantly harassing people we ended up with debit orders worth approximately R2000 per month. This money was used to cover the most basic expenses while we used Esack's flat as our office and meeting place […]. There were also several occasions when Positive Muslims could not cover its monthly expenses and had to borrow money from executive members. (Ahmed, 2003)

Sometime in the second year of the organization’s life, it first attracted foreign funding from a Dutch agency, NOVIB, which further diminished the requirement for an appeal to the ordinary public for support.

4.6. Structure & Decision-Making The executive committee who led the organization, consisted of four sub-committees namely, (1) education and awareness, (2) support and counselling, (3) finance and funding and (4) administration. Despite her own centrality in the organization’s formation it would appear that neither Amina Noordien nor Miller herself had a significant say in the decision- making processes of the Executive Committee. (Interviews with Ahmed and Kader). Furthermore, from the interviews conducted as well as from the organization’s records, there is no indication of staff members and volunteers playing any role in shaping the organization’s policies. While there was regular interaction between these four levels it was evident that the organization’s policies were entirely determined by the Executive Committee. At no stage was a public call made for ordinary persons to join the organization

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Positive Muslims was established in the South African Muslim community at a time when the whole country, let alone Muslims, were left confused about the origin, impact and medical responses to HIV & AIDS, considering the political climate and public messaging around it. Adding to this bewilderment, Muslims – like other religious and traditional communities - in their own gut “faith” impulses responded with harshness. They believed based on their very strict religious requirements around intimacy and sex they should and would be immune to the condition. Thus when, Miller, this hijab-clad and apparently devout believer publicly announced her HIV status, she was at best received with difference and at worst with scorn. As pointed out by Kader,

“The response from the Muslim community towards HIV at that time was extremely judgmental, moral judgments were quickly passed; it was linked to just sex, especially sex outside of marriage, it was frowned upon, and people were really just nasty toward PLWHA like if you had the virus and people were dying of the disease they weren’t given proper Muslim burials, hosing down the bodies, not wanting to touch the deceased’s body, marginalizing the infected and affected […] there was an almost scary ignorance.” (Interview with Kader)

Karen Armstrong (2012) points out that we find ourselves in a precariously polarised world, and that religion is considered a contributing factor to such polarisation. She argues that religions, even though they have many differences, share the most significant similarity, i.e., compassion. All religions agree that compassion is the true test of spirituality and service to God (Ibid.). Jonas Svensson (2013) says that several studies have shown that the absence of compassion, as well as cultural insensitivity, in organizations working and supporting PLWHA exacerbates the problems in prevention work and stigmatization.

When one looks at the experience of people living with HIV & AIDS, two things stand out. The first is the diversity of people with HIV & AIDS. The second is how often and in how many ways people with HIV & AIDS are stigmatised or discriminated against. Sometimes it appears as if the various people with HIV&AIDS have only two things in common: HIV infection and HIV-related stigma and discrimination” (Canadian HIV & AIDS Legal Network 1999).

It was thus motivated for organizations to develop a more culturally sensitive approach to HIV & AIDS. An approach with due consideration for religious beliefs, norms and practise (Hasnain, 2005; Ibrahim, M .2008). Svensson (2013) contends that the Theology of Compassion of Positive Muslims is an example of that.

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CHAPTER FIVE

The Theology of Compassion as an Example of Adjectivised Engaged Theology Anchored in Liberation Theology

5.1 Introduction

In this chapter, I extract relevant and/or related details from the interviews and read them in conjunction with the other printed media sources and data related to or produced by Positive Muslims. Using a Theology of Compassion as an interpretive lens, I tease out themes/responses that are consistent to what has been described in the previous chapters as a responsive objectivized theology anchored in Liberation Theology.

5.2 Adjectivized Responsive Theologies: Theology of Compassion In Chapter Two of the dissertation I mapped out the importance of theology for Muslims. I also provided a comprehensive but condensed mapping of its development as understood by Muslims, while also providing comprehensive but condensed mapping of arguments regarding the possible external influences which modern scholars argue have contributed to Islamic theology. Those arguments are suggestive of the importance of theology in the lives of Muslims, as well as an indication of how it has taken a space of importance in research done by contemporary scholars. It is also indicative and reaffirming of the point made in the Introduction and Chapter One of the thesis where I pointed out that religion plays a central component in the lives of the majority of human beings who inhabit this earth, and that they most of the time respond to matters from an angle of religious conscience when faced with challenges.

Of this Ahmed, and the other interviewees indicated that it was important for an organization like Positive Muslims to be established and come into existence. I quote Ahmed here, since his comment encapsulates what most of the other interviewees stated, when he said;

“I think there needed to be an attempt really to reclaim an approach to Islam that served as a counter narrative to the dominant idea of Islam being a religion of retribution and punishment and so there was deep ideological work that needed to happen, when we formed the organization, to make sure that we develop ideas that 102

moved the narrative on HIV & AIDS. There was a clear understanding that we needed to counter to this negative dominant narrative.” (2003, 107)

The notion of an adjectivized responsive theologies as outlined in Chapter Two pointed out that it is not an uncommon phenomenon in religious assemblages and noted that is definitely an important lens through which to understand Muslim practices of Islam, both historically and presently. Since Positive Muslims served the Muslim community, in response to a theological conundrum faced by their clients, their response can be seen as a particular form of theological foregrounding. This notion is further evidenced in much of their publications, thus it can be argued that the Theology of Compassion as developed and introduced by Positive Muslims, together with Islamic Liberation Theologian, Esack, who, as noted previously, was the architect behind its conceptualisation and explicit articulation. For example, Ahmed noted that

“Farid was probably more interested, and played a more important role I would say in shaping the ideological framework of the organization […] and my recollection is that his description of this theology of compassion was really a way of counter acting and counter balancing what had become a dominant theology of violence, of retribution, of this image of an angry God, that constantly punishes Muslims for doing things that were felt to be un-Islamic, and so it was a counter, it was part of this idea of a counter narrative through the dominant discourse, but beyond the narrative dimension I think that there was strong ideological decision to develop a new form of thinking a new way of talking about HIV & AIDS and tap deeply into Islamic theology, Qur’an and Hadith , but even at the same time, it moved away from the early monolithic interpretation of the text it was rooted in that was anger and retribution.” (Interview with Ahmed)

Fatima Noordien, who joined the organization well after its formation also argued that the said response [the formation of Positive Muslims] was a direct response to what she termed “the red book”. Clarifying what she meant, she referred to Malik Badri’s The AIDS Crisis: A Natural Product of Modernity’s Sexual Revolution, published early in 2000, the same year Positive Muslims was established.

While the above is confirmation of the Theology of Compassion as an adjectivized responsive theology, and that it is also commensurate with the principles and objectives of Liberation Theology, it must be noted that not all members agreed with this. Fatima Noordien said that she felt that all of the principles and objectives of the theology of compassion was not something that needed to be sought in a developed framework, since 103 she believed that the principles of the Theology of Compassion is rooted in Islam’s foundational texts, the Qur’an and Hadith. She is thus of the opinion that the response is grounded in tradition, in Islamic values and principles, which she argued is overriding of all other frameworks. She passionately expressed that Allah’s kalam (referring to the Qur’an as Allah’s ‘speech’), and the example of the Prophet are our foundations to build upon and our guide to live our lives by

For Hassiem it was not really about being concerned about naming the organization’s theology at all; for her it was just about doing the work, she expressed that for the people on the ground it doesn’t matter what lens or framework is being used as an approach, it is about rendering them a service, and like Noordien she felt that this is primarily based on qur’anic principles. She articulated this as follows:

It’s all nice to talk on an academic level, […] but when you get to a compassion- centred Islam and you come across a person in the community who is doing this, that and the other and people need to cover up etc. You then have to take this and implement this in your work and your interventions, and you will hit some stumbling blocks because one would like to think that we are a compassion-centred Islam. But remember we are dealing with our own gremlins as well, so in order to cover up our things as well, we tell half-truths because the other half is not good enough. It is/was not always easy for the thinking and the mind-set of the academics and the way they’ve interpreted things, which is really beautiful actually. Our compassion-centred Islam is in laymen’s terms “be a good person. The character of the Nabi Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam ; just emulate the Prophet ” So as good as it is to talk about these things you have to remember that these are the souls of people, and then we also have situation where things are messing with your comfort zone. And we were taught that, don’t mess with the Din [the religion] and so when this theology of compassion came about and this thing of a compassion centred-Islam it surely resonates with me but at the same time you get the sceptics who would think “what is she busy with?” (Interview with Hasssiem).

From the above one may conclude that while all of the members of Positive Muslims came together with a shared passion for ensuring justice, freeing people from oppression, addressing the issues that isolate people to the periphery and stigmatize them, and to offer assistance they had their own lived experiences and personal reflective reasons for why and how they wanted to do it. They had different influences that shaped who they are and what it means to serve. Thus, while the Positive Muslims members who participated in the research have a number of shared values based in their passion for humanitarianism and their desire to establish a just society, most of them articulated that Esack was the architect behind the naming of the organization, its motto, its vision and its objectives 104 which, considering his background, he may have formulated foregrounding Islamic Liberation Theology but never articulated it as such which led to the members locating it in their own ‘framework’. For Noordien and Hassiem it was the Qur’an and Prophetic example in context, for Kagee and, in some ways Kader, it was anchored in social justice humanitarianism. Kader expressed her consideration of the location of the Theology of Compassion as follows:

“For myself, I didn’t think of it as a theology of compassion in Liberation theology, there weren’t these frameworks and scholastic words attached to it, or spoken of around it, it was just a group of people doing what needed to be done on the ground, I guess it’s because most of us were not scholars and academics in that way, and Farid has the intellectual knowledge backing to possibly bring forth that part of what he brought to the broader framework of what we were doing that implemented it so beautifully that we were doing exactly that without even thinking or knowing about it.” (Interview with Kader)

For Ahmed it was a blend of Liberation Theology and social justice aspects. The members were thus not in accord or like-minded regarding the ‘unspoken of’ framework that Esack may have had in mind. It can however, not be denied that they were certainly in agreement on the work that needed to be done and the change that needed to urgently come into effect. Furthermore, this also does not disprove that the Theology of Compassion must be rejected as an adjectivized responsive theology that is based in Liberation theology; to render it plausible or impossible one must reflect upon the themes and objectives of both the Theology of Compassion and that of Liberation Theology.

5.3 Comparative Analysis of Theology of Compassion and Liberation Theology Themes As mentioned in Chapter Two under the discussion on Liberation Theology and its ‘offshoot’ Islamic Liberation Theology, the idea of Liberation theology as located within Positive Muslims’ Theology of Compassion will be explored here. To do this we recall the collective themes that liberation theologians have espoused may be considered as the objectives of Liberation Theology and follow this with a presentation and comparative analysis of the objectives espoused by Positive Muslims. The themes of Liberation Theology are as follows, 1) To change society more than to understand God (or His intent), i.e., to let go of the understanding that understanding society and understanding God goes together, or that the one is rooted in the other, the priority is to promote central changes in the way society is structured and that at its deepest levels (Roger Olsen, 2013); 105

2) Denouncing global capitalism as a brutal oppressive force responsible for the misery and premature death of much of the world’s population; 3) Interpretation from the perspective of the poor and oppressed; 4) God has a preferential option for the poor and oppressed, and they have a privileged insight into God; 5) That there is a consciousness of oppression rooted in oppressed experience and that this is both a source and a norm for theology (Roger Olsen, 2013); 6) Action, orthopraxy and the agency of the oppressed, the praxis from which theology begins and upon which it reflects is solidarity with the oppressed in their struggle for liberation (Roger Olsen, 2013); 7) Emphatically understanding the social side of the religious message; 8) Theology should not be universal, in the sense of the same everywhere, rather it should be local, as Roger Olsen (2013) argues, asking the question “how can theology in an affluent all-white suburb, be the same for the suburb where children go hungry and people live in subhuman conditions?”; 9) Liberation of the oppressed is the work of the oppressed themselves, they should not and cannot wait on the privileged group in society to extend equality, they should make it happen and take it; 10) Understanding that because social reform, such as religious political progressive advocacy is too slow and timid, and thus liberation theology must be revolutionary.

In chapter three I put forth how Positive Muslims was formed and how they developed the Theology of Compassion together with its objectives as understood by the members. The chapter was thus formulated considering the members responses while at the same time examining what has already been written about the theology, its formation and the architect behind the formation, Esack. Therefrom I extracted themes that were apparent in my analysis to be the objective of the Theology of Compassion. Hashim Kamali (in Esack & Chiddy, 2009) the prominent Afghan scholar of Islamic law currently based in Malaysia, contends that the expression “Theology of Compassion” is unique to Positive Muslims and Esack, with its overarching theme being articulated in the organization’s mission statement where it defines the theology of compassion as a reading of the Qur’an and an understanding of the Sunnah (Prophetic Precedent) that focuses on a God that cares deeply for all of His creation – and that he favours the oppressed (Positive Muslims, 2004). This can be seen as its first and most central theme. The following are the subsidiary themes that flow from the aforementioned overarching theme 1) the Creator is All Merciful (Al-Raḥmān); Most Compassionate (Al-Raḥīm) - all religions agree that compassion is the true test of spirituality and service to God; 2) the absence of 106 compassion exacerbates the problems in prevention work and stigmatization; 3) Compassion necessitates solidarity with those infected and affected, and seeking change with them; 4) the approach to HIV & AIDS must be culturally sensitive - an approach with due consideration for religious beliefs, norms and practise; 5) Compassion necessitates solidarity with those infected and affected, and seeking change with them – solidarity with the downtrodden and marginalized but with the understanding that they themselves must take charge of their liberation; 6) to create and provide the platform and framework to be active participants in the struggle against HIV & AIDS and the stigma and discrimination that accompanies it; 7) empowerment and liberation that completely recognized the human dignity PLWHAs; 8) to change society’s approach towards HIV & AIDS and PLWHA’s – considering the milieu Muslim South Africans faced, the change had to be revolutionary ; 9) be responsive to the understanding of the existing social and political implications and how it impacts on PLWHA; 10) It must respond to universal need and should be applicable at all levels.

Examining the above it is apparent that there are not just overlaps but mindful orchestrated considerations of and for the Theology of Liberation. One finds the similarities impossible to disregard. Both theologies prioritize the context of the believer in framing its response, focusing on orthopraxy. The theologies are commensurate in their affinity for the marginalized, poor and downtrodden, framing their interpretation of religious texts from the perspective of the poor. Liberation theology as well as the Theology of Compassion aim to be liberative with the understanding that liberation itself is the responsibility of the oppressed, they cannot wait to be liberated, and thus action must be revolutionary. Both theologies have insight into and understanding of social and political reform and understand that without addressing these aspects the theology will be unactionable and worthless, and possibly risk reducing the objective of the organization to one that is mainly assistentialist. Thus, both theologies are liberative in understanding that assistentialism68 is limiting and cannot reach the extent of what a liberative framework sets out to achieve. One may thus conclude that Esack was aware of his foregrounding of his own leanings in favour of Liberation Theology right from the inception of the organization. While some of the other members may not have considered this as important, because ultimately what they were concerned with was that the work

107 gets done and that people’s lives were changed for the better. As Rehana Kader put it: “They loved what they did; they loved coming to the office; they love seeing progress in people; they did it and got it done.” For Esack, whose life’s influence, experience, and growth, reflective in all his work, this groundbreaking, important project could not be separated from Liberation Theology.

5.4 ILT In Cognito? The Need for ILT to go Undercover The discourse of Islamic liberation theology has largely entered a phase in which its locus of enunciation is no longer primarily in social movements, but rather reflection on the discourse itself through the lens of various movements and social justice issues (Kunnummal 2016). Meaning, Islamic liberation theology has taken on a slightly new role in relation to its co-founders and pioneers, who were the first to birth the discourse into being through praxis. A nearly identical process has occurred within Latin American Christian liberation theology, albeit slightly earlier given the relative maturity of the discourse in relation to Islamic liberation theology. Along this vein, Ivan Petrella, one of the leading Latin American liberation theologians in the early 21st century, has argued for the need of liberation theology to go incognito into other non-theological disciplines and social issues in order to 1) break the divide between theology and other social science disciplines, and 2) to propagandize the revolutionary principle which liberation theology has made popular in theology in other areas of non-theological existence and social order; namely that of the preferential option for the poor, margins and oppressed. Petrella writes in “Liberation Theology Undercover”,

I propose to reflect on liberation theology by moving beyond liberation theology. I want to separate liberation theology’s main ideas from theology, from its own theological framework, in the hope of giving them a wider application. In this thought experiment – meant to allow liberation theology to move beyond theory and discourse – I use liberation theology as an umbrella term, covering not only the Latin American liberation theology that emerged in the 1960s and ‘ 70s, but also the manifold liberation theologies that mushroomed in the decades that followed, and share with the former at least their “option for the poor,” such as feminist theology, Latina/o theology, Black theology, queer theology, etc….As such, this essay takes on an understanding of liberation theology that disentangles the “liberation” from the “theology” in liberation theology.. The disentanglement begins with two elements at the heart of liberation theology, namely its attempt to think from the situation and standpoint of the oppressed and its commitment to social change on the institutional level. To be true to these two elements requires moving beyond the disciplinary guise of “theology” and into other disciplines. The possibility of the dissolution of the field of liberation theology as a future of liberation theology distinguishes liberation theology from political theology. Liberation theology, 108

because of its commitments that go beyond “theology” as a discourse both in an academic and a practical context, does not depend on the discipline of theology in ways political theology might, but rather continually pushes to transcend the confinement of its thinking within “theology.” (Petrella 326)

Petrella’s contribution is novel and crucial in terms of breaking liberation theologies away from theology proper, even while liberation theology remains a marginal discourse within that discipline itself. In short, Petrella’s attempt is one that universalises – overtly and covertly - the most salient contribution of liberation theology to the world, that of the preferential option for the margins. He cites examples of liberation theology going incognito in the fields of public health, architecture, education and urban planning (Petrella 2017: 332-336).

One of the most robust examples of liberation theology “infiltrating” – or, in less subversive terms, being in critical dialogue with – another field of knowledge and praxis is that of public health. There has been a longstanding relationship between one of the founding figures of Latina American liberation theology, Peruvian theologian Dr. Gustavo Gutierrez, and that of world renowned white American public health Harvard scholar and activist in social medicine, Paul Farmer (b. 1959) (In the Company of the Poor). Farmer first encountered liberation theology as an undergraduate student at Duke University in the United States in 1980 by way of a social justice-centered nun named Sr. Julianna DeWolf who ministered amongst migrant farmers in the area (3). In the coming years, he read Gutierrez’s foundational text, A Theology of Liberation, while doing public health work in Haiti. He was so inspired by liberation theology that he made “the preferential option for the poor in health care” a founding principle in the mission of the public health NGO he co-founded in 1987, Partners in Health (4). Farmer eventually met Gutierrez in person in 1994 and the latter has remained a mentor to Farmer’s work ever since (ibid.). Farmer has become a pioneer in the field of social medicine and splits his time between lecturing at Harvard University and providing health care to poor communities around the world, including Gutierrez’s impoverished base community in Lima, Peru. Farmer’s mission is to explore “the implications – so far, almost completely overlooked – of liberation theology for medicine and health policy” (Farmer, Pathologies of Power, 141).

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CONCLUSION

As demonstrated earlier in this work, the history of Islamic liberation theology both from a wider social movement level under and post-apartheid, as well as at a discursive level primarily through the works of Esack, have had an anchoring effect on the social positioning and worldview of Positive Muslims. Yet, Positive Muslims did not explicitly call itself an Islamic liberation theology organization in its literature nor in the vast majority of its social engagements. Is Positive Muslims a good example of liberation theology going incognito in order to do da’wah (lit. in Arabic “to call or propagate”) for the preferential option for the mustad’afun fi al-‘ard (lit. in Arabic “the oppressed or wretched of the earth”)? I argue that Positive Muslims was in fact a prime example of the discourse of Islamic liberation theology going undercover in order to speak to a wider audience and social issue that would have otherwise been neglected if couched in more explicit liberationist terms. Throughout the literature and ideology of Positive Muslims, this happened in primarily three ways: 1) the Theology of Compassion was developed as a terrain-specific name that was inherently liberationist although outwardly not necessarily so, 2) Positive Muslims did not present an obscure liberationist discourse or individual liberal rights approach with regards to the public health issue of HIV & AIDS, but rather a liberatory approach that was couched in the language the community could understand and be receptive towards, and 3) the literature inherently and subversively centered the margins, poor and oppressed in both theory in method without having to overly antagonize or explicitly differentiate itself from mainstream theological discourse prevalent in the community.

Firstly, as has already been established in this work, the theology of compassion was developed as a way to speak to the Muslim masses who had been up until the point of the formation of Positive Muslims either unaware, apathetic or outright against directly grappling with the issue of HIV & AIDS in the Muslim community or otherwise. Therefore, one of the initial aims of Positive Muslims was to speak in a way both honest to the Islamic tradition – which, in their opinion, had much to say and offer in terms of effectively confronting the HIV epidemic – as well as remain attentive to how the community would receive a message that many within the community were seemingly not ready or unwilling to hear. The use of the name “theology of compassion” was thus both a genuine attempt to formulate a progressive, rational and scientific approach to 110 address one of the most crucial public health issues of our times, as well as a strategic choice that would resonate with the community and not unnecessarily antagonise them with too radical or uncommon language. The term “compassion” is a given within the wider lexicon of everyday and intellectual Islamic discourse; it is embedded in the basmalah (i.e. In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful) which Muslims are technically supposed to recite throughout their prayers every day in addition to verbally preceding many of the intentions, thoughts and actions throughout the day.

In chapter three of one of Positive Muslims main publications, HIV, AIDS and Islām: Reflections based on Compassion, Responsibility and Justice, the idea of compassion is detailed in great length in relation to God, the Prophet and Muslim everyday life. The title of the chapter is “Compassion – Reflecting the Light of Allah” and begins with the Qur’anic verse,”

What will convey unto you what the difficult path is? Liberating others, providing food on a day of hunger to an orphan or relative, or to someone disadvantaged and in a bad situation. Then you become of those who [truly] believe, who encourage one another to persevere and encourage each other to become compassionate. (Qur’an 90: 12-17)

The emphasis on compassion at the end of this verse is inherently linked to the ideas of “liberating others” – namely those at the margins who are hungry orphans and disadvantaged. In a very simple way, Positive Muslims presented a verse that is part of the common sense of Muslims – to have a preferential option for the margins – without explicitly stating it, and by inherently correlating it to the specific position of those suffering from HIV/AIDS. The chapter continues by relating the compassion of Allah and the Prophet to the compassion that is needed in order to be in solidarity with those affected by HIV (30-31). Several hadiths are narrated that deal with compassion in a seeming abstract, salvationist or personal sense; yet, the author recontextualizes these hadiths to have them correlate to the social positioning and injustice suffered by those carrying HIV/AIDS. This again is not done in an overt way that antagonizes ‘ulema’ (religious scholars) who often cite these hadiths solely for the sake of abstraction, salvation or self-help, but simply presents them as part of a covert liberationist and compassion-centered ethos.

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Secondly, in a similar yet slightly different way than the last point, Positive Muslims did not present an obscure liberationist discourse or individual liberal rights approach with regards to the public health issue of HIV/AIDS. Rather, they presented a liberatory communitarian approach that was couched in the language the community could understand and be receptive towards. While interconnected, the shift in emphasis in this argument is Positive Muslim’s challenging of liberal individualism rather than the emphasis on covert language games that I argue in the previous point. One way in which Positive Muslims does this in its literature is – ironically - through the method of presenting personal stories of Muslims who have struggled with HIV/AIDS throughout its more theoretical and/or exegetical interpretations of Islamic scripture. From a certain vantage point, this may seem like an attempt to simplify the issue of HIV/AIDS into an assistentialist charity mentality which only focuses on individual stories and not the system. While that may be one possible interpretation at first glance, the final effect of weaving these stories into the longer communal and exegetical narratives of radical compassion repositions the seeming individual nature of the said person’s story into a communal framework that resonates far beyond liberal charity claims. The amplification of the individual story personalizes a systemic issue – through a liberationist impulse couched in the language of compassion – and resonates on a communal level given that the peoples’ stories fit into a larger narrative of communal precedent through the Prophet’s life and command of Allah for the community. This style of story-telling underscored that it is not a liberal freedom to be fought for, but a communal obligation to be incorporated through a systemic theology of compassion; one that bears witness to the injustices faced by normal everyday people who are victims of systems of oppression.

In HIV, AIDS and Islām, there are five stories shared throughout the sixty-page booklet; Saleem from Cape Town (12), Nabil from Syria (14-15), Zuma (a non-Muslim) from South Africa (20-21), Saheeba from Iran (27) and Shunila from Bangladesh (43-44). All these individuals, men and women, have been in one way or another affected by HIV and/or AIDS. All of them died due to the infection and/or disease, and the lack of support and response they received from their communities and societies. Their stories shed light on the systemic ways in which those at the margins - including the margins of the margins – being poor, a woman, a racialized minority or from the Global South all at once. The one story we will focus on is that of Shunila. Shunila was born in a rural area of the Silhet Province of Bangladesh and was married at the age of fifteen to a remote cousin. After 112 moving to the capital city, Dhaka, and bearing her husband a third child, her husband threw her and the three children out on to the street. She was forced to live and work in the slums the following years with other single women trying to survive. Shunila later found out she had AIDS. She may have contracted it from her husband who was a truck driver and had sexual partners both outside of marriage and with a second wife, or from the men she slept with for money in order to survive in the years after her husband abandoned her. She had never been raped and felt lucky to survive and provide enough money as an independent woman to keep herself and her children alive. Shunila eventually died from AIDS and her three daughters were orphaned (43-44).

The story was presented with a serious question in the booklet: who killed Shunila (44)? Was it the family that married her off at fifteen and then wouldn’t take her back after the so-called disgrace of being disowned by her husband? Was it her misogynist and violent husband who threw her and his three children out on the street? Was it the capitalist- induced poverty they experienced while living on the street? Was it the Western countries that de-developed this poor brown people’s country to the point that social safety nets ceased to exist? Was it the lack of public health education? All of these questions were raised in one way or another throughout the story, whether directly or indirectly. It is impossible for the reader of the text not to question the systemic nature in which Shunila faced systems of Western hegemony, patriarchy and racist capitalist exploitation amongst other systems of oppression - on the margins of the margins - that symbolizes a story far too common with AIDS victims. Rather than share the story as some type of pitiful unfortunate scenario that induces the reader to feel charity is the only way to help this seemingly hopeless woman, the story covertly invokes from the reader the need to sit with the uncomfortable systemic consequences and approaches to understanding, having compassion towards and eventually being agitated by this public health crisis. The intention in sharing this story is to imbibe a theology of compassion in readers to understand how communal and systemic approaches to the issue – and not some form of liberal, assistentialist charity giving – are the bare minimum tools needed to address this public health issue.

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Interviews

Noordien, Fatima 2019. Interviewed by Masnoenah Kamalie, September 2019, in Cape Town.

Ashraf Kagee 2019. Interviewed by Masnoenah Kamalie, September 2019, in Cape Town.

Faghmeda Miller 2019. Interviewed by Masnoenah Kamalie, September 2019, in Cape Town.

Farahneez Hassiem 2019. Interviewed by Masnoenah Kamalie, September 2019, in Cape Town.

Abdul Kayum Ahmad 2019. Interviewed by Masnoenah Kamalie, September 2019, in Cape Town.

Rehana Kader 2019. Interviewed by Masnoenah Kamalie, September 2019, in Cape Town.