Identity
The writer, Ayyad Dilawar Padhani is in Marketing at his family optical practice. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management, Marketing and related support services. He has been rendering community services from a very early age.
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n an increasingly globalising world, where people from different nationalities, ethnicities and cultures are able to freely mix, and live in one society, a global village, we can increasingly see polarisation where each group unites with their own, where a sense of us versus them arises, judgements based on cultural norms and practices, assigning some to be modern and respectable, and others to be backward and unacceptable.
In a world often controlled and manipulated by powers in the more economically powerful West, we must ask ourselves, in whatever part of the world that we live in: what conflicts are going on around us? Who stands to gain from the disunity of communities? What is identity politics and what is its purpose? And why are we not able to remove the wool pulled over our eyes? How can years of trust, collaboration and unity between people be destroyed in moments? Often moments planned and funded to divide and conquer.
We can define identity politics as a certain group with a different set of background, cultural beliefs of ethnicity forming a political group while trying to influence the structures in a country or state. Tribalism, another form of polarisation, based on what tribe one comes from, has roots we can trace back to the time of the holy Prophet Muhammed (saww), which he (saww) came to remove from the society at that time. Which is where all the emphasis on taking care of one’s brother in faith, praying congregational prayers, rights of the neighbour, orphan and widow, come from and have great importance in the Islamic tradition.
Ideological differences have been sowed into our minds by orchestrated global media and we must critically ask important questions to ourselves, read history, listen to a variety of news sources, ask trusted scholars and deeply meditate on how these issues come about.
As Muslims, we are reminded of the Quranic command to “Hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided” (Quran 3:103). Yet, the rise of tribalism threatens this very fabric of collective strength and harmony, whether that may be in an islamic context, or broader one.
It is through sincere discourse, that we can truly unify with all peoples that we may be at difference with, whether that may be religious, political or social groups. Furthermore, it sometimes helps to look at where the money flows. If there is someone to benefit from a particular conflict, then we must not allow the efforts to disunite, succeed, such as the Western Oil and Arms companies benefitting from conflict and oil reserves in the middle east.
The role of social media in the efforts to influence major global events has not gone unnoticed either. Countries using paid ads, fake bot accounts, influencers and directed research, to significantly change voters opinions, therefore often altering the course of the future, or to polarise citizens into feeling fear or anger, which results in unrest in another country, is also something happening. Furthermore, even in local politics, governments have been seen turning off these powerful megaphones that can quickly spread polarising content. Although with the negative power that comes with social platforms, the other side of this double edged sword is the fact that the truth also has a better chance of getting recognised and spreading around the world.
The more time we spend watching certain content creators, the more we move towards trusting them, and the likelier it becomes that they can influence us. As muslims we must first and foremost seek to be influenced by the Holy Prophet and his Family,
We can only learn from their ways, by engaging with their teachings, a hadith a day, a story a day, a few ayaat of the Holy Qur’an on a daily basis, and going through their life stories. In conclusion, if we are to attach ourselves to the teachings of the God given guides, we are most surely going to find that the solutions to unity, understanding, compassion and strength of a society with many different people, in terms of ethnicity, culture, religion and other differences is akhlaq.
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