A Lesson in Islamic Semiotics from the Dominion Post

In a truly extraordinary lapse of judgment, the Dominion Post of 27 November 2018 published an article on a Syrian immigrant family.  Accompanying it was a photo of the parents with their back to the camera holding their child, about three years old, facing it.  He was showing his left hand in what has become widely known as the ISIS one-fingered salute.

It is not a casual gesture.  It has been taught or copied and is unambiguously the same as the ISIS salute.  There could be charitable reasons for the child’s expression, of course.  It could be a count of one.  Emphasis, perhaps; maybe indirect or direct pointing. But these are the least likely explanations for a child of three.  Perhaps the most likely is the origin of ISIS’ salute, that of tawhid, Islam’s absolute and uncompromising concept of monotheism.  Scholar Ismail Raji al Faruqi, in his book Al-Tawhid:  Its Implications on Thought and Life describes tawhid thus: “The social order of Islam is universal, enveloping the whole of mankind without exception.  By virtue of being human, of being born every person is an actual member of the social order or a potential member his recruitment is the duty of all other members. … Islamically speaking, therefore, there can be neither an Arab nor a Turkish, nor a Persian nor a Pakistani, nor a Malay social order, but one: the social order of Islam. …it sours and turns non-Islamic if it does not move continuously toward including all of mankind.”

Western media’s shallow grasp of Islam’s supremacist imperative means that the significance of this child’s expression is lost on almost all but New Zealand Muslims.  Yet it is a shibboleth of immense importance.  Does the Dominion Post editorial team not realise that this is the symbol of Islam’s global hegemonic conquest, giving the finger, so to speak, to the non-Islamic world?   Here’s the original newspaper image, along with that of another Muslim, purportedly holding the head of Kurdish fighter Rehana.  

 Same symbol, same significance.   

 

Mosque massacre post-script:

Unnamed mosque shooting survivor

 

Al-Noor fatality Syed Jahandad Ali

And the continuation of a theme:

In Philip Matthews’ book review[1] of Mohamed Hassan’s How to Be a Bad Muslim, he quotes Hassan’s experience with an Auckland customs official who asked, “Why are you standing outside the Dome of the Rock with your finger in the air?”  This is a man who complains, without irony, about being reduced to a profile, “…Born in Cairo. Muslim. Security threat. Suspect. Terrorist.”  He misrepresents ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Muslim perceptions in the West, at least from my perspective.  Give me a ‘bad’ Muslim any day, one who rejects the Koran’s prescriptive violence, patriarchy, theological supremacism, and Islam's goal of global domination.  ‘Good’ Muslims fly planes into buildings and slaughter thousands in the name of Islam every year because the Koran tells them that this is what Allah wants. And those who hold their finger in the air to signify Islam's uncompromising monotheism.

 

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[1] https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/300619580/book-review-how-to-be-a-bad-muslim

 

Sinead O’Connor’s Conversion to Islam

Sinead O’Connor’s recent conversion to Islam is likely to have been influenced more by her evidently fragile mental state than any deep understanding of the religion.

However, Westerner’s conversion to Islam does seem to favour females over males by as many as three to one[1], and this is worthy of consideration. 

Western society’s morality is based on intangible rules of behaviour above and beyond legal constraints, and this may produce disquiet for those who prefer a less flexible system.  Islam offers a rules-based morality allowing for – indeed, demanding - moral acquiescence.  This may be more favourable for females because their tendency for empathic solipsism may require a more defined moral code, one with values shared with other women.  As Camille Paglia notes, modern society has displaced women’s role, but not their “emotional and conversational needs that were once fulfilled by other women of multiple generations throughout the agrarian workday in the fields or at home (where the burdens of childcare and eldercare were group shared).”[2] 

For men, with their tendency for systematisation, Islam’s rules may be less a matter of morality and more of authority.  Male conversion may thus be based on different premise to that of females, and may account for the fewer male converts.  Given the reducing importance of masculine roles in the West, it could be speculated that Islam may offer men a more dominant role in society and inclusion in a brotherhood, and thus raise the ratio of male conversion in the future.

It should be noted that this comment represents just a small facet of Islamic conversion in the West, but one which has received little or no coverage.  Other reasons include counter-cultural, empowerment, enforced, idealism, identity, moral, simplicity, competitive advantage, and social.

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[1] https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/narratives-of-conversion

[2] https://quillette.com/2018/11/10/camille-paglia-its-time-for-a-new-map-of-the-gender-world/