Friday, June 17, 2011

Not To Be Confused with the Shofar Note

Justin Elliott has a good glossary of terms from Islamic law that tend to be badly misused by right-wing anti-Muslim zealots (his source is Islam expert John Esposito of Georgetown University). We recently saw a sterling example of this courtesy of the Washington Times, which invoked the doctrine of "Taqiyya" in support of a bizarre theory that Anthony Weiner may have secretly converted to Islam.

"Taqiyya" is often described by the ignorant as a blanket dispensation to lie to nonbelievers; in reality, it is a limited Shi'ite Islam doctrine that permits one to deny being a Muslim where one's life is in danger or it would otherwise lead to severe persecution. In this, its closest historical parallel is probably to Marranos -- Spanish Jews who faked a conversion to Christianity in order to escape persecution during the Inquisition.

3 comments:

chingona said...

The way that Taqiya is used against Muslims reminds me of the way the Kol Nidre prayer about being excused from oaths that you can't fulfill was used against Jews in the Middle Ages.

Cycle Cyril said...
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Cycle Cyril said...
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