The Narratives in Clifford Geertz’s “Which Way to Mecca?”

Abstract

Islam has become the main concern of the media, the society, even the governments, due to many kind of “terrorist” activities, for example September eleven (11/09), Kuta beach, suicide bombers, Osama bin Laden, the Iraq war and so on and so forth. Suddenly, Islam has become a contested terrain. A lot of writings from different perspectives are published in order to give information to the public about what the Islam is. They are the narratives of Islam which is thrown away to the public domain. These writings or narratives also represent responses and reactions, which include not only understanding but also warnings, reassurances, advices or attacks (Geertz, pp. 27). It also has impacts on the social practices, ranging from the daily lives of the people in general to the government’s policy. In Clifford Geertz’s “Which Way to Mecca”, we could found both the meta-narratives and the narratives from different perspectives by different authors, including the competing narratives among the story tellers and between them and Geertz.

A. The Big Story and The Story Tellers

1. The Big Story of Understanding Islam

In “Which Way to Mecca”, Geertz was explaining the phenomenon of “understanding Islam”,
especially after the September eleven’s attack on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon. This phenomenon was reflected in many kinds of writings and books about Islam that have been published. In the process, “understanding Islam” had become a contested issue. According to Clifford, this writings represent responses and reactions, which include not only understanding but also warnings, reassurances, advices or attacks (Geertz, pp. 27). Therefore, as explained by Geertz, understanding Islam had many approaches which divide and bound the overall field of argument and interpretation. The four approaches are: (i) the civilization approach which opposes the “west” as a whole to Islam; (ii) defining the various streams of contemporary Muslim thought and practices based on political expression; (iii) conciliate efforts seeking out “many are the roads but God is one”; (iv) studies that conceive Islam less as a cohesive mega entity persisting through time than as a collection of particular in the context of the vast and entangling forces of all over modernity advance (Geertz, pp. 27). These are the meta-narratives or the four mainstream narratives of understanding Islam.

2. Locating the Author and the Narrators

The article was written by Clifford Geertz, a well-known anthropologist. Geertz introduced four narratives in the article. Each narrative has different perspectives or aspects and written by different authors from different backgrounds. These authors are the story tellers. Geertz is also criticized them and gave his opinion which was also reflected in the title, “Which Way to Mecca?”. To this extend, he then implicitly became the narrator himself.

Clifford Geertz was in the US Navy during the World War II before he took a carrier as an anthropologist. He had studied at Antioch College (for BA) and Harvard (for Ph.D). He started his carrier as anthropologist at the University of Chicago (1960-1970) and became a professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton until 2000, now emeritus [1]. He is also known as a champion of symbolic anthropology, which the role of thought (of “symbols”) in society is the main concern. He also has conducted extensive ethnographical research in Southeast Asia and North Africa and issues on religion, most particularly on Islam [2]. In short, he is one of the well-known experts of Islam.

The story tellers or the narrators in the articles are: Bernard Lewis, M.J. Akbar, Thomas W. Simons, Jr. and Karen Armstrong. In his article, Geertz gave some information of their backgrounds. Bernard Lewis is a famous orientalist, well-educated in Islamic studies-, and also an adviser to the USA’s vice president. Lewis had written many books about Islam. He is also known as the prominent expert in Islamic studies. M.J. Akbar is Muslim founder editor of the English-language Indian daily. He was also former Congress MP and a nonstop commentator, particularly on the issue of Islam in Delhi. Thomas W. Simons Jr. had a carrier as the US ambassador to Pakistan. He also has many experiences and strong education related in the area of Europe and European studies. Karen Armstrong is an ex-nun and a writer of a number of religious subjects, including the Semitism religion and also Buddhism, medieval mystics, and so on.

B. The Events, the Narratives and the Resulting Social Practices

Some authors points out the September Eleven (11/09) as their main event in the narratives, while others not. Akbar took the civil war in Kashmir as his events while Simon added the impacts of globalization especially after the fall of communism. Most of the narrators also wrote from historical approach in terms of they traced to the whole carrier of Islam itself. Some narrators also put the relationship between Islam with other religious groups, most particularly the Christianity, including Hindu radicalism (as can be seen in Akbar’s writing), and the Jewish (as can be seen in Armstrong’s writing). The resulting social practices were ranging from the daily lives of the people in general to the government’s policy.

1. The Narratives

The first narrative was from Bernard Lewis in his two books that were written before and after 11/09. In his book that he wrote before 11/09, he argued that Muslims are caught up in a confused and resentful mourning over the loss of a cultural primacy that was once theirs and has now been lost (Geertz, pp. 28). He also points out how the Muslims worlds were changing through the history because the external factors which is the crucial events and changes in the world that surrounds them. He also brought in the Christian-Muslim history into his narrative. On the other hand, in his latter book that was written after the 11/09, he described the attacks as “the latest phase in a struggle that has been going on for more than four centuries” (Geertz, pp. 28). Moreover, he also mention about “the holy war and unholy terror” and argued that this had became a threat to the world as a whole.

The resulting social practice can be seen in the daily practices from the level of society up to the government, particularly in the US. Through his consistency in producing his writings and his backgrounds, the American people recognized him as the experts on Islam. His book became the best seller. Thus, the narratives and arguments in his book were very influential in creating public opinions, especially in the US. Moreover, as he also an advisor to the USA’s vice presidents, his opinions were also influential to the policy-makers. According to Geertz, his narrative after 11/09 had been slightly shifted and became “intensely contemporary, close-up polemic designed to arouse the West, and most especially the US, to armed response”. One of the social impacts is the US foreign policy in fighting terrorism or its tight immigration policies towards the Muslims to come to US.

The second narrative is written by M.J. Akbar. The event is civil war in Kashmir, originated in the history of conflicts between India and Pakistan. Each title in each chapter in his books reflected the way he presented the narratives, such as “the joys of death”, “circle of hell”, “history as anger” and so on. He wrote about the rise of Islam and its engagements with Christianity and then he focused on the “Jihad in the East”. Generally, the narrative was about the continuing war between the cross and the crescent in many places (the west, Kashmir, Bangladesh and the destruction of Babri Mosque), including the rise of Hinduism radicalism and the appearance of Osama bin Laden. The messages were very clear that: (i) the Jihad is never over; (ii) defeat is only a setback in a holy war; (iii) the jihad goes on and; (iv)the stakes by now are nuclear. His narrative contributes to the creation of Islam’s images as a religion which legitimized and valued the attacks to other religion as a spiritual activity.

The third narrative was written by Thomas W. Simons Jr. His main event was over the entire course of its thirteen-hundred-year career and added the impacts of the globalization, particularly after the fall of communism (Geertz, pp. 29). According to Simon, the idea of globalization has emerged as common denominator in analyses of the world affairs. He argued that globalization is the main power in driving and directing the pace of change, including the Islamic society. He divided the history of Islam into: (i) the early Islam where most of them were lived in agricultural economy; (ii) 18^th century and the imperialism which led to a “progressive simplification and brutalization of the increasingly revivalistic Islamic discourse; (iii) the 1970s globalization which led and driven by coal, steel, petroleum and information technology. He described Islam as “the world’s most powerful engine, agent, and vehicle of globalization, and … [its] most sharply contested battleground” (Geertz, pp. 29). It then caused the dispersion of religious authority, the weakening of the nation-state, the failure of “defensive modernization” and conduced to a new radicalism that caused the September eleven, thirty years later. Thus, he argued that the 11/09 attacks was the results of an old problem that originated at least 30 years before.

The fourth narrative was by Karen Armstrong. She tacked and portrayed the course of Muslim history as a temporal unfolding from a revelatory foundation, the carrying forth of a settled faith into an unsettled world. She did not focus on any particular events, but she emphasizes on the historical aspects of Islam “through the eyes of faith of external history” in more comprehensive way. It included from the assassinations, wars, dynasties which was seen as temporal unfolding history as “primitive” to revelatory moments, for example Muhammad in Mecca and Medina, the transmission of the Koran and so on. Her books also became the best seller. Moreover, she also brought the relationship between the fundamentalist groups in the Semitism religions (Islam, Christianity and Jewish), not only how these three religions were connected but also conflicted to each other (as can be seen in her book: “The Battle for God” and “A History of God”). Viewing the whole carrier of Islam, her approach included accepting the Koran’s perspectives and values on things, prophet and prophecy. It gave information about Islam, throughout history and within a wider context, including its relationship to other religion, the power relation within the Moslem itself that created the assassinations, the dynasties and so on. It also perceived Islamic Society not only during the leadership of Muhammad, but also went beyond that. Therefore, her narratives brought a more comprehensive way in look at the problems. It also enabled the public to differentiate between the good Muslim (values) and the bad Muslim (practices).

2. The Competing Narratives

The narratives in the article, to some extend, were competing to each other. The competing narratives existed: (i) among narrators and; (ii) between Geertz and the narrators.

1. Lewis and Armstrong

The meta-narrative was the “understanding Islam”. Some narratives, like Armstrong’s, were more comprehensive than the others. Comparing to Lewis, Armstrong gave a deeper insight of what Islam is and also the fact that you could found the similar situation in other religion, while Lewis placed Islam as dangerous power, a threat to the world. As quoted by Geertz:

Bernard Lewis

Karen Armstrong

If the [Muslim fundamentalists] can persuade the world of Islam to accept their views and their leadership, then a long and bitter struggle lies ahead, and not only for America, Europe… is now home to a large and rapidly growing community, and many Europeans are beginning to see its presence as… a threat. Sooner or later, Al-Qa’ida and related groups will clash and the other groups will clash with the other neighbors of Islam – Russia, China, India—who may prove less squeamish than the Americans [have] in using their power against Muslim and their sanctities. If the fundamentalists are correct in their calculations and succeed in their war, then a dark future awaits the world…

The historical trials and tribunalitons of the Muslim community –political assassinations, civil wars, invasions, and the rise and fall of the ruling dynasties –were not divorced from the interior religious quest, but were of the essence of the Islamic vision. A Muslim would meditate upon the current events of his time and upon past history as a Christian would contemplate an icon, using the creative imagination to discover the…divine kernel. An account of the external history of the Muslim people [is not] of mere secondary interest, since one of the chief characteristics of Islam has been its sacralization of history.

2. Geertz: Which Way to Mecca

Geertz also criticized the four story tellers. In his opinion, “Akbar, Lewis, and Simons see Islamic Civilization in the perspective of its reactions to what surrounds it, to what confronts it, and what it confronts – the west, the east, globalization – than it is to the promptings, whatever they might be, of its spiritual character. It is its encounters with others, rather than wit itself, that have shaped it”. He was also saying that, “The lack of concern with specifically religious conceptions and specifically spiritual motivation in most of the “understanding” Islam literature does produce something of a Hamlet without the Prince effect”. Moreover, he also points out the credibility and reliability of the narrators, for example he criticized Simon as “there are almost citations than there are sentences”.

The article “Which Way to Mecca “was a brief explanation about the competing narratives in the process and it also played as guidance to read those narratives, as well as the story tellers. There are a lot of narratives by different story tellers with different backgrounds, different perspectives, different emphasis, and different goals which could led to a misunderstanding Islam, but still, it all led to the main-narrative (Geertz pp. 30). And it was reflected in the title. Mecca is a very sacral place for Moslem, as their direction in praying. The direction to Mecca is different from other places in the world, for example it is in the West direction from Jakarta, while it is in the North-East direction in Netherlands, but all leads to Mecca, as well as all writings and narratives leads to the meta-narrative, understanding Islam.

[1] http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/fghij/geertz_clifford.html, accessed on February 2006.