http://www.cbc.ca/radio/the180/how-safe-cities-can-be-dangerous-the-problem-with-reconciliation-and-stop-saying-cuba-will-be-ruined-1.3507402/we-need-decolonization-before-reconciliation-argues-ryan-mcmahon-1.3507589
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I just attended a wonderful talk at Wilfrid Laurier University by Oren Lyons, "Faithkeeper" for the Onandaga Nation and UN activist for Indigenous Peoples. His words and presence, as well as those of other beautiful people at the conference, inspired me to formulate some thoughts on decolonialism that had been floating around my mind for a while. Here is this formulation:
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Seen from the subaltern side of the modern/colonial divide, modern civilization distinguishes itself  as uniquely destructive. Colonized and neo-colonized bodies and epistemologies are being destroyed, languages are disappearing at an alarming rate, nuclear weapons continue to threaten the existence of humankind, the ice is melting (as our speaker kept reminding us)...the list of victims is endless. From below the colonial divide, modern Western-centric civilization appears as the civilization of unsurpassed death and destruction. Delinking involves realizing that this system can't be defeated on its own terms. No amount of violence from below can hope to counter the violence coming from above the colonial divide. Only life, love, and wisdom can defeat death, hatred, and arrogant scientism. We are beyond arguments of moral equivalence. It is a matter of survival.

C'est le titre d'une présentation que je donnerai dans le cadre d'un atelier au CEETUM (Centre d’études ethniques des universités montréalaises) à Montréal.
I will be presenting a paper at the graduate symposium of the CEETUM (Centre d’études ethniques des universités montréalaises) in Montreal.

​Voici les coordonnées :
​​Here is the information for the workshop:

Salle 530-1-1 Atelier 12 (1re partie) Islam, islamophobie et migrants musulmans
​18 mars, de 9 h à 11 h (partie 2 de 11 h 15 à 13 h)

The dominant perception of religion in contemporary Western societies like Canada is that its institutions and discourses are particularly prone to dangerous, excessive, and fanatic behaviour, in comparison to other institutions and discourses like medicine, journalism, sports, arts, and law, to name but a few.
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Hurting oneself, sacrificing one’s life or even risking to do so for religious reasons is generally considered excessive and suspect behaviour. It often triggers fears dangerous extremism in mainstream society. However, consider the following list of situations in which similar behaviour for non-religious purposes is actually considered praiseworthy in dominant Western discourse:

1. Dying for your country as a soldier
2. Risking imprisonment, torture and even death as a journalist
3.  Permanently harming your body through extensive training and practice to be an Olympic athlete or a concert musician (even assisting minors to risk injuries in this way)
4. Walking into a burning building as a firefighter
5. Sacrificing family relations, health and even fortune to pursue an ambitious entrepreneurial or professional ‘dream’ (sending babies to daycare and elders to specialized homes in order to pursue such ambitions)
   
6. Of course, the list of examples could go on indefinitely, but I hope you see my point. Negative perceptions of ‘excessive’ religious behaviour, particularly by members of minorities, is linked to cultural assumptions and values. Without denying the existence of problematic religiously-motivated behaviour, it is important to be aware of such biases, especially when they are linked to hegemonic discourses of dominant classes and ethnic groups.

An interesting academic discussion related to these questions is:
Beaman, Lori G. Defining Harm: Religious Freedom and the Limits of the Law. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2008.

I am happy to announce that the book Sufism and Social Integration is now published. With 23 chapters including mine on decolonial Sufism as well as a preface by Seyyed Hossein Nasr.  http://www.amazon.com/Sufism-Social-Integration-Connecting-Boundaries/dp/1567444326/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428370251&sr=8-1&keywords=sufism+and+social+integration

Alors que vous vous demandez
Si cette femme arabe a le droit de considérer
Que ses cheveux font partie de sa nudité
À couvrir par pudeur et pour préserver
Sons sens de l’honneur
Et de l’identité
Ses sœurs sont attaquées partout
Ses filles
Ses fils
Ses frères
Sous pression
Accusés
De vouloir perpétuer
Les supposées superstitions de leurs grand-mères
Encouragés à cracher
Sur leurs grands-pères

 J’ai connu des Arabes au moins par milliers
Et je n’ai pas trouvé ces femmes soumises faibles et idiotes
Que vous me décriviez
Je n’ai trouvé que des femmes et des hommes sous pression
Trop souvent sur le point d’exploser
Toujours exposés à des indignités
Quotidiennes banales incisives excessives
C’est avec leurs vêtements qu’on fait notre lessive
Ce sont leurs corps que traversent nos innombrables controverses

 Nos guerres froides chaudes financées libératrices impérialistes économiques et culturelles
Ont excité leurs fanatismes
Mis en danger les subtilités
Et pourtant la nuance est toute Arabe
Les arabesques et les broderies
Les savants mélanges d’épices
Le soufisme
Tout est menacé
Par l’intégrisme
Le libéralisme
Le néocolonialisme occidentaliste
Les wahhabites sont votre miroir patriarcal
Vous vous complétez
Vous vous embrassez
Vous vous embrasez
Vous vous encouragez
À détruire l’Irak la Syrie le Yémen
Et votre viol pénètre masculinement l’Afrique
De l’Égypte au Nigéria

 Mais restons concentrés sur les Arabes pour l’instant
Qui vous étonnent tant
De résister encore
Après plus de 500 ans
En refusant encore trop souvent
De prendre pour unique modèle l’homme blanc
Je sais en occident presque tout le monde
Et depuis longtemps
A adopté le modèle de la chapelle Sixtine
Le Bon Dieu blanc barbu
Touchant de son doigt viril
Son lieutenant imberbe
Pas de hijab ici
Même les féministes sont tombées sous le charme de cette nudité musclée
En occident que l’on soit blanc brun noir femme ou enfant
Il faut aspirer à être égal disons pareil à ces hommes blancs
Renaissants modernes divinement humanisés

Et voilà que des femmes brunes et voilées
Osent se différencier
Jusque dans nos terres javellisées
Nos tribunaux aseptisés
Normal nos juges sont scandalisés
Et nos journalistes fascinés
À la vue de ces fichus

Alors que moi à Casa je vois se refermer les forces divisées
D’un grand sandwich mondialisé
La tranche du haut est un Arabe occidentalisé
Celle du bas un réformiste musulman violent
Entre les deux trop de salade et de viande arabe
Et au-delà
Les dents d’un géant blanc

How can I – a university-educated Westerner – not believe in such modern ideas as the evolution of species, historical progress and modern enlightenment? First of all, let me be clear that I do not deny all modern claims completely, nor do I care to debate most of them on their own terms. For instance, I usually accept medical prescriptions based on modern science without debate. By stating that I do not believe in modern ideas, I mean that I do not have faith in them; I do not trust that they can ultimately lead me to happiness. Instead, I believe in the teachings of Islam as transmitted by traditional orthodox authorities such as scholars and Sufi masters (1). So, how have I come to believe in teachings so radically different from those espoused by the vast majority of my modern Western peers? There are probably many factors to explain
this, including many of which I am unaware. However, I think I can identify one important reason for my coming to such unusual conclusions; my initial assumptions about life were quite different from those of my peers. 
 
Already as a teenager, I was obsessed with understanding my place in reality. My ignorance of  the reasons for my existence anguished me. My awareness of this ignorance led me to make very few assumptions about what answers I might find. So, I sought the guidance of those who claimed to have answers to such questions. I read numerous philosophical and religious books and spoke to those people who claimed to have answers about why we are here. I was an avid consumer of any television program or magazine article that dealt with this subject. These various sources of information obviously did not provide a cohesive explanation for me. However, they did help me to better distinguish what I knew from what I felt and what I ignored. Metaphysical writings from the world’s major traditions were particularly helpful in helping me realize that the only thing I could really be sure of was my own existence: I am – somehow I am. I cannot be unquestionably certain that what I perceive around me is real. When I dream, I consider my environment to be real but when I awake I realize it was not. Therefore, I cannot be certain that I will not one day awaken to another reality in which my current condition will seem unreal. When I was a child, I perceived myself as very small. Although my size has changed, I am still here perceiving the world. So, although what I perceive is uncertain, my existence as a perceiver is unquestionable.

My only basic assumption in understanding reality was that I  most certainly am. Yet, I didn’t have a clue who I was. If I was to become happy, I knew I needed to find some answers as to who I am, what my place is in reality and how I can be happy.  Nothing indicated to me that modernity could help me find these answers since it seemed much more preoccupied with the world I perceive (objective reality) than the being perceiving it: me. Modern science rests on the assumption that the objective, material world is real. Therefore the only true science becomes material science. In turn, material well-being becomes the aim of modern existence. Although I do not deny the relative importance of this goal, it is not my ultimate goal. Since my assumptions are radically different from those of most of my peers, so are my conclusions.  

They keep coming with their dry mouths and broken shoes

From the cold mountain tops

They storm the walls of Ceuta and all over the world

They cross deserts, drown in the seas, walk along highways, hide in steel boxes

They come from the jungles, the mountains, the fields

Filling the slums of Cairo, Port-au-Prince and all the cities with flashy dreams

Of soft feet and proper teeth

And leftovers, lots of leftovers

They won't stop coming while we dig our pools

Choose good schools

Choose a movie

Choose a skirt

Choose a cruise

Choose a dessert

They sweat and spit

They don't have running water

They want our stuff

They just keep coming

Turn on the light

Check the closet

Look under the bed

Build more jails

Higher walls

Shoot to kill

They just keep coming

The actions of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq (IS) are sickening. But calling in the US and its allies in to save the day is like asking a pack of wolves to save you from a dog.

Recap: Since 1991, the body count of Iraqis killed by the US and its allies is in the hundreds of thousands at least, probably millions (most organizations stopped counting long ago). These deaths include over half a million young children killed by UN sanctions in the 1990s. That siege killed considerably more people than the one on Mount Sinjar today.

The complete disruption of Iraqi society by the US and its allies is responsible for creating the conditions for the IS to rise today. The IS is but one of many disgusting by-products of Western imperialism around the world, whether it identifies as such or not.

God save all people from every part of the world, including Europe and North America, from the sickness of Eurocentric colonial racism and its by-products. And God protect us from any similar illness that might eventually arise after its demise.