Re: Islamic Comedy?
Reply #19 - October 06, 2009, 09:30 PM
I don't find him moderate at all. I mean, perhaps moderate in the context of people like Yusuf Estes. I'm not sure what "moderate" means in relation to Islam, particularly when it is a self-ascribed label being used by Muslims. It sure as hell has never been defined clearly. Does believing in and promoting compulsory hijab count as moderate? His latest video reads like an almost line by line reading of CAIR or MAS propaganda regarding anyone who dares criticize any aspect of Islam. And I like the video about male / female friendships where he says that all guys want to get into all girls' pants, and that guys pretend to be girls' friends to do this. And then when the guy reveals his true, nefarious intentions (to sexxx the girl up, which is of course nefarious on planet Islam), "you brought this upon yourself." (his words, addressing WOMEN). Blaming women for men's actions? Is that what counts as moderate? Possibly, when you're talking about religious Muslims.
Baba Ali criticizes aspects of Muslim sub-culture that are considered unpalatable in today's Ikhwani-influenced "mainstream Islam" in the United States, perhaps rightly so. However, he does so from the self-created position of an outsider, claiming to be a convert to Islam (he is not), probably due to the fact that when converts criticize problematic cultural aspects of the Muslim sub-culture, it tends to have a shaming effect and drives people towards more stringent, "non-cultural" interpretations of Islam. The interesting thing is that the aspects of the sub-culture that he criticizes are nothing more than the run of the mill complaints that second gens (which he belongs to) make about their parents' and grandparents' cultural practices and attitudes.
The rest of his stuff builds off of fundamentalist / evangelical American Christian arguments about science and creation, and I think we can agree that the people with that mentality aren't very moderate either. (As an aside, I think it is interesting how many American converts and second gens are adapting and utilizing the apologetics of evangelical and fundamentalist Christians, even though the two stand directly at odds with one another). I mean, I even sat down and watched like, 8 of his videos just now just to make sure I'm not being unfair to the guy and it was like I'm listening to Christian fundamentalists.
But the worst for me, more than his smarminess, his fake convert story, his preachiness, his wholehearted adoption of Ikhwani ideology is he fact that he's not original. He was just the first one to put the second gen whinging on YouTube. Watching his video is just like a MYNA conference, lol. He isn't saying anything every religious second gen Arab or Asian kid in the US hasn't said, especially about marriage traditions. Everything I've seen in his videos so far has been said or written by myriad people before him. That is just a criticism of him not related to being moderate or extreme or liberal.
[this space for rent]
Topic: Islamic Comedy?