this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023
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Islamic Leftism

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Welcome to Islamic Leftism, a space for muslims leftists.

Lemmygrad rules apply:

  1. No capitalist apologia / anti-communism.
  2. No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia.
  3. Be respectful. This is a safe space where all comrades should feel welcome, this includes a warning against uncritical sectarianism.
  4. No porn or sexually explicit content (even if marked NSFW).
  5. No right-deviationists (patsocs, nazbols, strasserists, duginists, etc).
  6. No class reductionism

Rules for Islamic leftism:

  1. No discrimination against other faiths or to those who lack it

  2. No uncritical judging, always look for the cause of things before doing judgement

  3. No compulsion in acceptance of the religion, if someone decides to leave or enter Islam let them for Allah is all-Knowing all-Wise and all-Forgiving

  4. No takfir ( excommunication ) against the innocent believers or other persons who don't share the same beliefs or ideas

  5. No treachery, show kindness to others even if they are mean to you

  6. Be always open to different jurisprudence or schools in Islam

  7. No discrimination against different schools or sects in the religion and outside of it. Is better to be united and in harmony

  8. Be respectful to eachother be it religious or non-religious, believer or non-believer

All of you are welcomed to join

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well yeah. It's just a term for it, it's not a statement. Criticisms of essentialism can be just as problematic (or not) as essentialism itself is (or isn't) (see Glen Coulthard's Red Skin White Masks). It is has been useful for a long time. Certainly figures like Pontiac and Tecumseh used it in their rhetoric.

It is 'strategic' because the essentialism is usually borrowing white notions of race and flipping them around (I.e. Calling the white man barbaric because he does exactly what he accuses others of doing and calls them barbaric). It's not meant to justify the notion of barbarism or lack of civilization, or to double down on white ontology, rather it's meant to flip the script and name the oppressor. It's how the Seminole clans describe the White War, as barbarism, but this is a flipped version of essentialism that is created by white settlers and weaponized against Native people and enslaved people (especially those that escape). Thus, strategic essentialism. It is meant to have rhetorical utility accross major political divides while also uniting a coalition.

And your point about women and men also works well. Women that use strategic essentialism are generally not intenting to advance sexist paradigms, but are naming the system they are subjected to.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Okay, had to be sure where you were coming from-- why I tried to couch what I was saying to defang it towards 'you' and more seat it in a societal sense. I've dealt with way too many people who operate off a very liberal sense of "I can just call this essentialism and never have to address it from there" on some thought-termination shit; I appreciate you expanding this out.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

My original comment was a bit cryptic and could have used clarification. It was just the first thing my nerd brain thought. I'm sure there is nuance to add considering anti Jewish sentiments are quite real (and not always easily compared to whiteness, for example) but yet the whole idea of "strategic essentialism" still seems worth mentioning.