Religious conservatives working together

FYI:  Brian Whitaker has an interesting piece on the emerging alliance between Islamists such as Yusuf al Qaradawi and American religious conservatives on issues of "family values."  If I had any time at all, I'd say something about it, but I don't. 

Comments

[Bob]

I would be interested in hearing AA’s opinion on this question, as he has in the past drawn a parallel himself between Qaradawi’s views on social issues and those of the conservative right in the US.

I’m not convinced that this sort of formal comparison is particularly useful, as it takes no account of context.

The US the “family values” lobby are fighting to reverse advances that have been made over past decades in terms of women’s and gay rights etc. But Qaradawi is operating against a completely different cultural background, where these advances have not been made, or at least to nothing like the same degree.

In his book “Islam Without Fear”, Raymond Baker (p.95) quotes an anecdote by Qaradawi about how, while one of his daughters was still at college, “a suitor asked me for her hand in marriage but indicated that he did not want her to work after graduation. I discussed the proposal with my daughter, who said she wanted to work, and so the marriage offer was rejected”.

From a western perspective, the whole idea of a father having any control over who his daughter marries is itself unacceptable. Qaradawi evidently sees nothing wrong with it. But whereas some fathers in his position would think they had a right to decide who their daughter’s husband should be, and would take it for granted that once married she would devote herself to domestic duties, Qaradawi consulted his daughter and respected her view that she wanted to finish her education and take up a profession.

While he rejects some of the liberal social reforms of the West, Qaradawi is nevertheless in his own terms a reformist who has adapted to change and to an extent modernised his views on social issues.

Barbara Stowasser wrote an interesting article in “The Muslim World” a few years ago arguing that Qaradawi’s Al Jazeera broadcasts had played an important part in overturning traditional Muslim views about the role of women in public life. Up until the ‘70s, Qaradawi apparently held such traditional views himself, but he then reassessed his position. Although even now his ideas fall way short of Western feminism, in the social context in which he is operating he has played a progressive role.

So, while Qaradawi’s views the centrality of the heterosexual family and his opposition to homosexuality may coincide with the ideas of the conservative right in the US, the actual effect he and they have as advocates of social change in their respective cultures is quite different.

I’m not arguing for an entirely relativist position here. I think the gains made in the West on certain social issues are a step forward for humanity. But to judge representatives of another culture according to how they measure up to the principles of western “liberal secularism”, as Brian Whitaker does with Qaradawi, is to close one’s eyes to the actual dynamics at work in different societies.