In September 2019, I led a weekend workshop in my Region for allies to Muslims. Here I share some of what we did in hopes that you will decide, act, and discharge on the topic.
GOODNESS AND CONNECTION
As allies, we must notice our goodness. Feeling bad can stop us before we even get started. In Harvey Jackins’s book The Human Side of Human Beings, there’s a drawing (on page 60) of a brain that has had many hurts installed on it (and we can assume that many of the hurts are from having been targeted by oppression). Ninety percent of it is filled with junk, represented as arrows going in all directions. The caption reads, “The successful adult by today’s standards: 90% inhibited, 10% still functioning.” We hung a poster of the drawing on the wall to remind us that it’s not our fault that sometimes we get stuck. We get to feel proud that we’re taking responsibility for it.
We did long mini-sessions and moved around singing songs so that we could tell we were connected. People discharged on noticing their relationships with each other. We have to notice our connections to take on ally work.
DOING IT FOR US
We’re not trying to think about others for them. We get to do it for us: to push our minds, to end our separation, and to make our lives richer. We don’t need to “save” or “help” others. We need to end the oppression of others because it ruins our lives, too. We may need to discharge to understand this.
ANTI-MUSLIM OPPRESSION
Anti-Muslim oppression is a global crisis. It’s not new, but after September 11, 2001, it increased. Colonial and imperialist powers have long had interests in the lands of Muslim peoples and have justified stealing from them by creating lies about them. Today, the oppression is so bad that just being Muslim can make you a suspect of the state and put you under surveillance. The climate crisis is disproportionately affecting Muslim countries, partly because of the aftermath of war. We get to face how bad it is so that we can do something about it.
NO TO INDIVIDUALISM, YES TO GROUPS
We need to look at where we are conditioned by the oppressive society to see ourselves as “individuals.” Looking at this seems to have everything to do with ending the oppression of Muslims.
In capitalist societies, especially in the United States and Europe, people are subjected to the myth of “individualism.” That means we’re taught to think of ourselves as unique, “independent” persons, separate from families or groups. This promotes isolation, prevents us from noticing that we are connected, and discourages us from working in teams. How can we stop the oppression of Muslims if we don’t have a team or group to do it with?
We are trained to see ourselves as “individuals” and to see Muslims as a “group.” We are deeply confused here. This confusion allows anti-Muslim oppression to flourish and stops us from interrupting it. Governments reinforce and manipulate this confusion to justify war. The United States has used this idea to wage numerous wars in South, Central, and West Asia.
There are nearly two billion Muslims on earth. The fact that they are represented as one group without any differences shows the extent of anti-Muslim racism and Islamophobia (fear of Muslims).
A PANEL OF WOMEN
We had a panel of four women from different cultures and religions. There was a South Asian Indian Hindu female, a white Jewish female, a Latina Catholic female, and a white Protestant female. They each shared what was good about being a female of their constituency and being close to Muslims and how they had been made to be separate from them.
WORKING EARLY
It’s always important to work on early memories, such as our first memory of meeting someone Muslim or hearing the word “Islam.”
WHAT WE SHOULD, COULD, AND WANT TO DO
Last year at a workshop to end nuclear war, Julian Weissglass (International Commonality Reference Person for Wide World Change) had us do a series of mini-sessions on what we “should do,” “could do,” and “want to do.” He said that all the “shoulds” are rooted in distress. Because there is so much work to be done, this focus can help us figure out what to do. We found it helpful to discharge on all three while thinking about taking action as allies to Muslims.
WRITING
We broke into writing groups. Each client had a primary counselor and “a scribe,” someone to write down or type what they were saying. It was a challenge to take ourselves seriously, but Azi Khalili (International Liberation Reference Person for South, Central, and West Asian-Heritage People) has asked us to write down what we have figured out so that the work can be shared and continue to grow.
NEXT STEPS
If you would like to lead this work or already are, please reach out to me at stephaniercgirl@gmail.com.