Critical pedagogical engagement with Muslim geographies

Abstract

In this commentary, I delve into critical pedagogical engagement with Muslim geographies and the Dīn of Islam, daring to go beyond the decolonial. I begin with an exploration of Sidaway's (2023a) discussion of ‘decolonising Muslim Geographies’ in the context of the pedagogical engagement of a female Muslim teacher of geography. I will develop an argument which will encourage critical geographers to ‘learn’ from Muslim geographies in deep and meaningful ways through the rich influential and intellectual traditions within the Dīn of Islam. My reflections will directly respond to Sidaway's call for a possible paradigm shift within the parameters of Eurocentric thinking to share Islamic epistemologies embedded in my own pedagogical approach. This will encompass rich and diverse intellectual traditions of Islam and geographical understanding of the concept of al-Mizān (balance) for the world that we all share.

Introduction

Bismillaahir Rahmaanir Rahim – in the name of Allah (ﷻ), Most Gracious, Most Merciful. I begin this commentary as a Muslim. If we are to engage with Sidaway's ‘Beyond the Decolonial: Critical Muslim Geographies’, Muslim scholars must be given the intellectual right to explore Islamic epistemologies to contextualise such geographies. After reading Sidaway's article, it was clear that there is an acute emphasis on the urgency of moving narratives beyond Eurocentrism and its colonial perspectives that have eradicated and created a reductive version of Muslim geographies through time and spatiality. Building on Anshary's (2023) suggestion that ‘critical geography is an extension of a secularisation project whose presuppositions negate the Islamic worldview’, I take the opportunity to reflect on my positionality. I am not concerned about critical geography and Islam offering contrasting worldviews, because there is no need to have homogenous frameworks about what is perceived as reality through various ontologies. Having different ways of knowing and developing epistemologies broadens the scope for different ultimate goals or purposes. These differences result in fundamentally different approaches to understanding and engaging with the world. Sidaway chooses a compelling source to show the world distribution of Muslim population (see Figure 2 in Sidaway, 2023a), which underscores the remarkable global prominence of Muslim populations and illustrates how geographically spread out Muslims are, as Akhter (2023) observes. Muslims cover significant spatial proportions and regions, alluding to the fact that Islam is beyond singularity in geographic and cultural context since it is a diverse and expansive Dīn. I embody the Dīn of Islam and I am a part of the significant presence of Muslims in western Europe. This is a personal reflection of the critical contributions such a group makes to the many facets of geographical realms including the spiritual, cultural, social, and economic tapestry of wider western European societies. Although this spatiality is not considered a part of the ‘Muslim World’ geographically, I still metaphysically belong to the Ummah, or global community of Muslims – which is not without differing schools of thought and sectarianism (see Akhter, 2023).

Critical pedagogy and Muslim geographies

Decolonising pedagogy is a complex process that can greatly benefit critical Muslim geographies as it demands the deconstruction and rethinking of how geography is taught to confront coloniality and Eurocentric ideologies. For critical Muslim geographies to be understood in mainstream critical geography, the pivotal Islamic scholarship and pedagogy of Imaam Al-Ghazali in Kitab al-ilm is essential reading (see Al-Ghazālī, 2015). As my doctoral journey began in the confinements of Western academia, I found Sidaway's contextualisation of Al-Ghazali to be particularly inspiring. As a Muslim thinker, I have engaged with Al-Ghazali since childhood in the home through parental knowledge production and pedagogy, and his theology and philosophical framework continues to inform my own perspective. Sidaway eloquently draws upon Al-Ghazali's Muslim intellectual traditions and knowledge production. Al-Ghazali is known to the West as the Persian theologian and philosopher who possessed an element of mysticism that shaped Islamic thought during the mediaeval period. However, for Muslims, Al-Ghazali is ‘proof of the Din’, leading many to appreciate his deep insights into understanding the Qur’an and Allah's (ﷻ) words and their application in the modern world (Al-Ghazālī, 2015).

As I reflect on the critical discourse of pedagogical engagement with Muslim geographies through decoloniality, there is an expectation that it may cause discomfort. This requires ‘decolonising the mind’, which involves the challenging and morphing of dominant epistemologies, as orientations lie within the comprehensive task of understanding this mindset within decolonial studies (see Thiong'o, 1986). Discomfort in this context can be positive, as it may enable a meaningful engagement with Sidaway's point about embracing Islamic epistemologies.

In a memoriam blog, I reflect on how Dr. Azeezat Johnson was already sparking conversations and ‘powerfully entering senseless spaces of prejudice and discrimination, obliterating parameters constructed to breed racism and Islamophobia’ (see Sammar, 2022a). Through Salaam Geographia (see https://salaamgeographia.com), I share allegories that demonstrates how teachers like myself engage with critical pedagogy to nurture and liberate students in the classroom. I reflect on hook's (2014) ‘engaged pedagogy’ to develop criticality in my own pedagogical approach to support a better understanding of real life and ‘everyday’ critical Muslim geographies for my students. My positionality as a female British-born Muslim geography teacher and researcher plays a pivotable role in making moves for narratives to transcend Eurocentrism and its colonial perspectives. I offer a nuanced version of critical Muslim geographies through ‘personal geographies’ to gauge the simple question of ‘Who am I?’ (Sammar, 2024). Sidaway (2023b) recognises the need to take heed of Muslim feminist perspectives and Black geographies through the critical questions that Noxolo and Hamis (2023) articulate about embodiment, positionality, and racialisation.

In my profession as a geography teacher, I have often faced discrimination in multiple forms, including both Islamophobia for observing Islam and overt racism for having a brown complexion (Sammar, 2024). Johnson (2020) embraces such intersectional realities and embodies a shift in paradigms through her discussion on how Black Muslim women in geography experience white academic institutions. This approach offers a critical method that decentres ‘the whiteness of the discipline’ (Nassar, 2023) by centring Black Muslim women as knowledge producers. Johnson (2020) highlights the criticality of Black Muslim women's experiences within the broader context of discussions on British Muslims and Black communities.

In order to nurture Muslim students in particular so they are understood better by their teachers, acknowledging something as simple as Salah (prayer) can be empowering. The right to pray is a basic human right, which is important to Muslims globally after a child reaches puberty when they are respected as a young adult in Islamic thought. Although the mind may not have developed to full maturity, the body is considered to be worthy of purification. Fajr Salah is the first of the five daily prayers, which many practising Muslim students and colleagues observe before school or work begins – where the condition of the atmosphere can only be experienced through religious practice, which is not something the secularised mind would necessarily choose to comprehend (Sammar, 2022b).

Plurality and paradigm shift

We are experiencing a paradigm shift, which can be imagined with Sidaway's argument that critical geographers must see beyond the lens of American and European imperialism where colonial ideologies are manifested. Islamic thinking brings a form of plurality into critical geography itself. Sidaway builds on Bowman's and Lefebvre's presentation of varying understanding of power relations and geography, which is intricate, yet their engagement with the legacies of empire inhibits decolonising geographical knowledge(s) and practices more than we can imagine. Bowman's association with Orientalist thinking and attachment to colonial legacies alone is enough to see how Eurocentric perspectives set to marginalise Muslims as the ‘other’ with a continuous reductive version of Islam and its Muslim traditions and cultures. Anshary (2023) rightfully challenges critical geographers to rethink how the secular perspectives and frameworks that they adhere to are enforced on others, as it causes harm to alternative ways of thinking (in the context of geographic education, see Esson and Last, 2020; Norcup, 2015; Puttick and Murrey, 2020). Important questions about inclusivity and respect for diverse epistemologies need to be given scope, where we will see the potential for dialogue between secular and religious worldviews in the pursuit of knowledge and social justice (Sidaway, 2023a: 387). Jazeel (2017) carefully asks us to value ‘plurality’ in knowledge production within the context of postcolonialism and decolonial geography studies, where decolonising can be viewed as a separate project. There is nuance to such perspectives, where voices and methodologies manifest the production of knowledge, which confronts and challenges dominant narratives and requires engagement with ‘singularities’ to avoid oversimplified categorisations and comparisons (Jazeel, 2019).

Islamic knowledge is vast, and Muslim thinkers acquire such knowledge through the Qur’an and Sunnah, embedded within a large body of interpretations from multi-ethnic scholars globally. It is not necessary that Islamic knowledge is only for the Muslim as Allah (ﷻ) commands the words to apply to humankind, especially in the discourse of al-Mizān, or balance of the earth with humanity and its environment, including the fair treatment of flora and fauna (see Keeler, 2016). The constitution of belief in one God, Allah (ﷻ), and his creations with the physical and spiritual application of divine knowledge, is embodied within the Dīn. Qur’anic ayat's (verses) are enmeshed with scientific thought and particular care with knowledge of the Earth sciences (Asad, 2003).

Islam is a sophisticated way of life – more than a religion and not without its own set of citations which predates colonial structures of the nineteenth century, backdating 1400 years. Islam cannot be understood in its entirety without the Hadith (sayings of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ) and the Qur’anic verses. Keeler's (2016) al-Mizān thesis asks contemporary thinkers to revisit what we have come to know and understand about the world through an analysis of the struggle for an equilibrium with the Earth. Concepts such as al-Mizān highlight the intricate and sophisticated nature of Islamic thinking, which is developed through studying sūrah ar-Rahmān (Qur’an, 55: 7–9). Keeler states that Surah Rahmān clearly advocates how creation is designed in a state of al-Mizān (balance), which asks humankind to refrain from transcending boundaries which may cause harmful imbalances such as the injustices and crises we see today. In the present, it is suggested that we are in a state of imbalance, where the world is experiencing injustices and inequality, whether it is geographically an environmental, physical, or human disequilibrium.

Conclusion

This commentary's engagement with Sidaway's (2023a) ‘beyond the decolonial’ demonstrates how a movement can transcend current decolonial thinking by considering an interdisciplinary and more sophisticated understanding of Muslim geographies through critical pedagogy and intersectional identities. Going ‘beyond’ still requires ‘decolonising the mind’ as a crucial step for the initial critique and deconstruction of Western/Eurocentrism and colonial legacies. Pluralistic knowledge(s) would benefit critical geographers, which requires taking a necessary step towards delving deep within alternative epistemologies, such as Islamic thought. There are multiplex frameworks that have been erased, ignored, or redefined to suit what we think we know in secular and faithless societies.

We are facing humanitarian and environmental crises that are evidently asking humanity to rethink how we live in this world we share. Our changing climate, increasing population, and social and political unrest is beyond the splitting of Islam and Western civility. It has come to a point where mutual respect and understanding is critical to our humanitarian survival, where plural paradigms must find al-Mizān with which to live. For now, both Muslim thinkers and critical geographers must adhere to dismantling the colonial through decolonial comradeship.