Praying to the West: How Muslims Shaped the Americas by Omar Mouallem

Author:Omar Mouallem [Mouallem, Omar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Islamic Studies, Biography & Autobiography, Cultural; Ethnic & Regional, General, history, social history
ISBN: 9781501199219
Google: C8kYEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2021-09-21T23:49:08.687811+00:00

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After interviewing Jeraj, I tried once more to access the Imamat’s Canadian leadership. I requested an interview with the national president. I respected their restrictions on worship attendance, but asked for a private visit to the tourist-friendly Ismaili Centre in Toronto. I also asked to meet the flagship temple’s mukhi and kamadia, a traditionally husband-and-wife duo elected to lead communal prayer. I made this request first by telephone, then in writing, at the instruction of a regional representative friendly to my cause. A conference call with Ismaili Centre staff in Toronto followed. I hesitantly provided them with a chapter-by-chapter synopsis of this book. I then endured a months-long communications gauntlet, only to receive a firm denial.

The more I pushed for access to the Aga Khan’s national leadership, the more I sensed that the victimhood narrative was used to shield him from moral scrutiny on one of the most important social issues of our time: gay rights. They voiced concerns with my interest in profiling a queer-friendly Toronto mosque later in this book. It didn’t matter that the premise of my project was demonstrating Islamic pluralism or that this chapter on Ismaili Muslims was separated from the other on the queer Muslim movement. Even if they were at opposite ends of this book, I was told there was a risk of being associated with the Toronto mosque, which could endanger vulnerable Ismailis across the globe.

To hammer the point, one of the Ismaili representatives (though not an official spokesperson) relayed an anecdote they’d heard about an unauthorized Ismaili float at the Toronto Pride Parade that supposedly incited anti-Ismaili violence in Pakistan. It was easy enough to verify the first part of this claim—photos were circulated online by a group called Ismaili Queers—but my attempt to verify the claimed attack came up short. I contacted Rahim Thawer, the LGBTQ group’s founder, who was unaware of the claim that his organization had unwittingly incited violence or that the photos had gone viral. Far as we could tell, they hadn’t. The whole thing was a fabrication.

The Ismaili’s public relations team had weaponized its historic victimhood using ugly contemporary tropes of Muslim extremists overreacting to offensive images. The horrific violence provoked in 2005 by the infamous cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper and again in 2015 at Charlie Hebdo offices in France are difficult subjects for me personally and professionally. I was deeply insulted by the suggestion that my good-faith reporting could spill innocent blood.

The fear of anti-Ismaili backlash suggests the Aga Khan’s caution protects Ismailis in ultraconservative countries. More likely it’s for fear of losing the allegiance of those Ismailis, who make up the vast majority of the sect, and consequently the Aga Khan’s legitimacy in many Muslim-majority nations.

I felt a righteous duty to force open the door that they’d all but told me not to look behind. To help me understand why homosexuality is such a thorny issue for His Holiness, progressive activists from the Ismaili community pointed me toward

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