A Broadening Understanding of Islam - Essay Example

 A Broadening Understanding of Islam David Tyson’s article entitled “Shrine Pilgrimage in Turkmenistan” paints a very different picture of Islam than do the images commonly disseminated by American media. The argument that Tyson puts forth is often ignored by both scholars and media alike, and thus stands to greatly broaden our perceptions regarding Islam. In contemporary American media, news programs and politicians tell us about the oppressive governments of countries such as Afghanistan and Iran that force people to observe daily prayers and will not let women appear in public without a male escort. For example, in the bestselling The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, there is a gut-wrenching scene about a woman being stoned to death because she had not conducted herself according to Islamic law. Another bestseller entitled Reading Lolita in Tehran chronicles a women’s book club that must meet clandestinely to read Western books that have been outlawed by the Islamic fundamentalists in power at the time. Texts such as these lead us to believe that Islam is an antiquated and oppressive religion that is forced upon people by their governments. If people do willingly participate in Islamic rituals, media sources often jump to the conclusion that they have been brainwashed to do so. Yet Tyson’s article tells an entirely different story about Muslims in Turkmenistan who risked persecution at the hands of the Soviet government to worship at sacred shrines. Thus the article very much helps to balance out the often one-sided depiction of theocratic states that force fundamentalist Islam onto its powerless subjects. Not only did the article expand my perspective as to the different contexts in which Muslims have practiced their faith, David Tyson also broadened my idea of how Muslims worship. While mosques, prayer rugs and religious observances such as Ramadan are very much part of the image depicted by the media, I was not aware that pilgrimages had so much religious significance. Tyson details the many holy sites that are significant to Turkmens, and shows how they played such an important role in preserving Islam in the face of the Soviet Union that sought to eradicate it from their empire. Not only do we see media bias in regards to the portrayal of Islam in the United States, Tyson points out that even recent scholarship contains biases: “Soviet specialists, as well as their Western counterparts, have also perpetuated and popularized this notion by portraying the Turkmens as, and indeed accusing them of being, ‘ignorant, wayward’ Muslims, ‘Muslim only in name,’ or ‘half Muslim.’” The tendency of scholars to dismiss Islam in Turkmenistan is indicative of a greater tendency to equate Islam with a theocracy that forces the religion on its subjects as opposed to a faith practiced in secret by devout followers. Lastly this article has broadened my understanding of women’s place within the context of Islam. There has been a great deal of attention focused on the oppression of Muslim women, so I would have thought that the Soviet policy of only persecuting men for practicing the Islamic faith seemed to be logical assuming the aim was to eradicate religion. Tyson however, points out that women actually became the guardians of religious faith under Soviet rule: “Because of this treatment and lack of scrutiny, Turkmen women (as well as all Central Asian Muslim women) by default became to a large degree the bearers of numerous Islamic traditions and behavior. In the case of shrine activity today, especially specific aspects associated with actual rituals and veneration, Turkmen women are seen as the chief participants” (Tyson). The Influence of Culture on Religious Observance and Participation David Tyson shows us that the role of culture in the development of Islam in Turkmenistan is complex: on one hand the Soviet government destroyed the more public aspects of the religion, but on the other hand it created devout followers who found ways to worship in secret. In a culture of religious persecution, religious participation and observance was transformed. One component of the oppressive political culture that Tyson explores is the destruction of Holy sites on the part of the Soviet government. This act had several implications for the development of Islam in Turkmenistan. The most straightforward consequence was that it destroyed “local and regional "intellectual centers" of teaching, discussion, and discourse” (Tyson). However, Tyson explains that this destruction backfired in two important ways. Muslims who witnessed the destruction of their holy sites believed that the perpetrators were met with a host of misfortunes, which only increased the power of the sacred shrines in the minds of the Muslims. Secondly, the destruction and persecution that Muslims endured under Soviet rule would prove to inspire future generations to emulate their devotion. Tyson interviewed several modern-day pilgrims at shrines in Turkmenistan: Some of the club's mentors included older women who told of how pilgrimage to the site was constant in the Soviet era in spite of the possible punishments. They explained that they understood such pilgrimage to have even more significance now and to be a sort of patriotic duty in this era of freedom and independence (Tyson). Thus the culture of the Soviet era in Turkmenistan very much influenced the religious practices of Muslims. Whereas Mosques and public worship had been at the forefront of Muslim practices in other locations, shrines and pilgrimages became the primary place of worship during this era, thus transforming the way Muslims practiced their faith. In Turkmenistan the effects of the Soviet culture that persecuted Islam are lasting, as it brought sacred shrines into the forefront as a significant public arena that did not have clergy presiding over it in the same way that mosques do. Tyson explains: “Admittedly, while the new "antagonists" are not nearly as opposed to, and brutal toward, shrine worship and pilgrimage, they are keenly aware that shrines continue to provide a forum for popular discussion in an environment where public debate and discourse are usually otherwise closely monitored and tightly controlled” (Tyson). The effects of culture on religious practices in this case are vast and long lasting, changing the religious landscape forever. Works Cited Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. River Head Trade, New York: 2003. Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran. Random House, New York: 2003. Tyson, David. “Shrine Pilgrimage in Turkmenistan as a means to understand Islam among the Turkmen.” Central Asia Minor Online Supplement (Vol 1): 1997. Read More