Category: Amanda Barner

The narrative of “Islam vs the West” represents a cultural divide, a story of polarized viewpoints, adversarial framing of historical relations, and the identification of “us” in contrast to “them”. As stated in the article, Islam and the West: Narratives of Conflict and Conflict Transformation,  “Dominant Middle Eastern and American narratives about relations between Islam and the West focus on the manner in which their respective civilizations have defined themselves in opposition to each other.” The narratives are primarily based around intercultural confrontation: when cultures have clashed, glossing over the times cultures have worked together. The “West” sees the “Islamic world” as barbaric and inferior to the West, more violent and backwards, and similar can be said of the view of the West as suffering from “moral decay and a disintegration of family values”. Since the Iranian Revolution and the questioning of European supremacy, the West’s view of the Middle East has shifted from exotic and beautiful to dangerous. The media and politics often use this to their advantage and escalate the matter with portrayals of the “other” without context or accuracy. The overall end result, and theme, of the story of intercultural confrontation then is that the two sides are forever at war with each other, unable to meet or find common ground.

However, there is a story of intercultural compatibility that can be told, even if it’s often ignored. Both cultures seek common values: peace, toleration, human dignity. Islam has a long history of trade with Europe, and in both the ancient and modern world education and knowledge crosses over frequently. “Whereas the first story seeks to trace the roots of conflict overwhelmingly to cultural differences, the second story attempts to combine cultural and political analysis.”

This myth that intercultural compatibility is impossible ruins chances for transformation before they even begin. If both sides believe that searching for common ground, and perhaps changing a little to accommodate each other, is out of the question, then neither culture really grows. Instead, views become ore polarized in an effort to justify any violent measures or wars taken against the other. Though it may sound impossible, some form of peace must be established to offer balance to the world; a chance to see the other side’s point of view, before they become too polarized beyond recognition.

Islam in Italy

The first (recent) wave of immigrants into Italy occurred during the 1970s-80s, first from Latin America and the Philippines, later from Africa and the Maghreb. It was from Africa especially that Muslims began to enter Italy, and with them the realization of permanent settlement of immigrants; different from France or Britain where there was a prevailing “myth of return”.

Unlike many other European countries, mosques organized and built in Italy are not created by and for immigrant workers, but by and for intellectual elites from the Middle East, particularly Palestine. It was only later that this changed and the use of mosques, and the culture surrounding Islam in Italy, changed. Also different from other European countries, Italian Muslims have a wide variety of origin countries, a rapid entry and settlement rate, a higher number of irregular immigrants, and more geographic dispersion. In France, Germany, and Britain, as we’ve seen, Muslim populations tend to focus around big cities, but in Italy there is no such tendency.

An intesa is a legal recognition of a religion by the state, which provides judicial and economical advantages. Examples of religions that have signed an intesa are the Adventist church, the Baptist church, the Union of Jewish Communities, and the Lutheran church. Since the 1990s, the Muslim community has been trying to gain an intesa, but some factors have gotten in the way of this happening.

The largest problem is that many Muslims are not Italian citizens, and most of the agreements have been met with historically established communities. Also, the number of Italian converts to Islam is still small, and thus Muslims do not currently represent a powerful political group. Linking problems of immigration to Islam by Italians creates a cultural barrier, as if Muslims are somehow more “alien” or “different” than non-Muslim Italians. This follows off the persisting image throughout Europe as Islam being the enemy. This has prevented Islam from being legally recognized by the Italian state.

A History of Jihad

After the retreat of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan in 1989 (and its eventual defeat in 1991), several new nations were brought into the Muslims world, and at the same time militant jihadists who had taken up arms wanted to create an ideal Islamic state to govern said Muslim world.

And though fundamentalist groups have always been a minority and their beliefs do not reflect the majority of Muslims, that does change the fact that they are a very vocal and violent force with a vision reactionary to that of Western imperialism and democracy. From Afghanistan in particular, arose the well-known Taliban, but in most Muslim countries there is some radical force present. The common belief held amongst the varying groups is the pursuit of the “glory days” of medieval Islam, which in reality was just as troubled as any other part of history, but within their created dogma represents tradition and purity that modern Islam does not possess. Another nod to this vision of “traditional Islam” in the creation of an Islamic state in the reliance on sharia law.

Continue reading “Blog 10: Fundamentalists in the Islamic World” →

A Journey of Sacrifices

The film “#MyEscape” is truly eye-opening in how it takes you along with refugees, filmed by refugees, as they escape from their homelands to Germany. As one of the men remarks in Part 2, “You viewers can experience our problems with us.” His words reflect the power of documentaries like this. Often news of refugees are simplified to pictures of overloaded rafts of nondescript people whom you cannot relate to because no personal information is given. You don’t know of their dreams, their beliefs, their families. In the news they are just a symbol of a political agenda, whether for or against immigration. Here, we as viewers are allowed to experience some of the tension and fear along with the refugees as they cross seas, deserts, and borders in hopes of a better future. Particularly gut-wrenching are the stories of the 8-year-old nephew and the 15-year-old girl who otherwise could have been forced into marriage. A final shot from the documentary shows her with her brother, enjoying a ride on a rollercoaster, and another where the nephew builds a snowman. These remind us of just how young some of the refugees are. Since we can identify personally with these people, we are invested in their journey and feel their relief as they finally make it to Germany, where they are welcomed.

Even after watching the film, I still had a difficult time piecing together The Dispossessed comic in the way the film laid out the journey. I could recognize certain similarities in the journey — the raft, the train, etc. — but some of the layout and text bubbles were not drawn in a very clear manner, nor does the comic convey the same amount of suspense and fear as footage from the actual escape. The photos throughout help, making the reading experience feel more realistic, but because most of it is drawn, a lot of the conflict and journey feels like fiction. I am reminded of a similar experience watching a film called “Waltz with Bashir”, which tells the story of an Israeli soldier who cannot remember the Sabra and Shatila massacre (a 2-day massacre of mainly Palestinian and Lebanon Shiite civilians). The majority of the film is animated and makes the action and violence seem more fantastical, but at the very end the film switches over to real footage of the aftermath of the massacre, instantly forcing the viewer to recognize how real and terrible the event was. The same can be said with the The Dispossessed versus “#MyEscape”. One feels like reading something removed from reality, while the other forces you to watch actual recorded events as if you were there.

Islam plays a small role in both of the stories, but the comic highlights it more than the documentary. In the documentary, the refugees are shown holding signs that say “Terrorism has no religion”, and only seem relatively religious when singing songs praising Jesus for their rescue on the ocean. Some of this is echoed in the comic where the refugees praise God when they are being saved from the raft. Later, at the end of the article, it is pointed out that during a night of crossing the Baltic Sea, some Muslim refugees found special meaning in the holiday it occurred on: Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice (referencing the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to follow Allah’s (God’s) command to sacrifice his son.) As they reach shore and bid the other refugees farewell, they wish each other a traditional Syrian blessing commonly said on major holidays, “May every year return, and you are safe.” So in some ways, though perhaps not as prominent as the media would have us believe, Islam can play a meaningful role in the sacrifices and harrowing journeys of Muslim refugees.

A Failure to Integrate

To make the journey even more difficult, for many Muslims their end destination can be as difficult to live in and their home country, with the addition of new languages to learn (for example, the refugees in the film are shown learning German), and issues of what Zemeni and Parker call a “failure to integrate” into European culture. This is primarily due to historical differences: most of the European countries, despite sharing a history with the Islamic world, were built on primarily Christian values. While many (especially Western) European countries claim secularism as a guiding value, this does not dismiss the fact that the underlying values of historical Christianity (for example certain holidays, traditions, how gender is viewed) do not come into play. 

Though Europe claims to be tolerant and diverse, the diversity only goes so far. It is the difference between being German or French or Italian: there are differences in the countries’ cultures, but they all belong within Europe. Much of the Islamic world is viewed as regressive or not modern enough to fit within European values. One potent example is the controversy over headscarves which represent a stark difference in how the different cultures address gender and public modesty. There is also the tendency to recognize and accept the differences between European countries, while treating many Arab and African countries as all the same. This makes it all the more difficult to allow Muslims to integrate and be accepted in European culture. 

Myths About Muslims

Justin Vasse addresses some of the common myths that prevent non-Muslim people from understanding Muslims. The first myth is that being a Muslim constitutes a fixed identity that can be applied to all Muslims, when in fact Muslims are just as varied and individual with their opinions and beliefs as anybody else. You cannot assume that the beliefs of one Muslim are shared by everybody else. This is especially because news media will often address a group of immigrants from Middle Eastern countries as “Muslims” when in fact they might mean “Egyptians” or “Saudi Arabians”. Identifying them this way implies that whatever the group of people are doing is in the name of Islam. 

The second myth is that Muslims living in Europe are somehow inherently foreign to Europe, when in reality Europe has many historic connections to Islam (math, architecture, etc.), and the idea of Europe as a white and Christian land is not only historically inaccurate but assumes that Muslim children of immigrants will feel foreign in the land they literally grew up in. 

The third myth is that Muslims in Europe form a “distinct, cohesive and bitter group”. Muslims are, as stated in the debunking of the first myth, not cohesive and form many different social and political groups, each with their own individual thoughts and beliefs. 

The fourth myth claims that Muslims are somehow gaining on the “native population”, which at face value is not only not true, but it again assumes that the “native population” of Europe is non-Muslim (and often, implied to be white and Christian). Both historically and currently, that is not true, as there are many Muslims who are native-born Europeans. 

Religious vs Political Islam

While the shariah (system of law) was developed from the Traditions of Islam, through the Qu’ran, it has since expanded from a strict interpretation of the religious text, branching out into several systems of law. These include the five Schools of Thought, each of which carries in how much they follow the Qu’ran, traditional jurisdiction, and legal reasoning. For example, the Shaf’i puts emphasis of free will and consensus of the community, Hanafi relies on legal reasoning and rules of evidence, while Hanbali rejects that reasoning and insists upon literal interpretation of the Qu’ran. All of these school of thought are based from the same religious text, but their interpretations, and thus the laws based around them, are different. 

It is also important to note that Muslims, while following the religious aspect of Islam, do not necessarily follow or agree with the political aspects. To assume that the religious and political dimensions of Islam are the same is to simplify a wide variety of schools of thought and legal and religious traditions.

Struggles in Europe

In education, Ramadan points out that there are challenges for Muslims: namely the blurring of cultural identity and religious illiteracy. He suggests that society as a whole question what exactly they want from education, whether that be a future with a high-paying salary, or to defend rights and justice, or to train pupils in responsibility? Primarily these challenges center around the fear of other people’s religions and beliefs, struggling to recognise others without compromising on your own identity. Education then, especially in the modern world, should focus on teaching students how to question meaning, discuss differing values, and break out of a rigid set of technical abilities. 

Social rifts are caused by economic crises which leads to violence and marginalisation. To combat the racism and xenophobia that arises from these rifts, local partnerships must be developed fight social deviation, Ramadan suggests.

These partnerships can work towards long-term development. This involves fighting unemployment (and racism in employment), promoting social welfare, and looking after marginalised people. In relation to Muslims, there must be mutual understanding, deliberately fighting against historical prejudices. 

After reading for a few weeks about the various viewpoints on the usefulness of foreign aid to impoverished countries, I have a more educated view on the subject, if not totally complete yet. More research will need to be done to really develop a solid opinion; I cannot judge Sachs or Easterly as if I was a peer when clearly they have done much more research and have a lot more experience in the area. However, I do have some preliminary beliefs about the usage of aid. I cannot fully side with the pro-aid Sachs or the anti-aid Easterly, rather settling somewhere in the middle. Sachs believes that aid “helps to jump-start the process of capital accumulation, economic growth, and rising household incomes”. Once the poverty trap is broken thanks to aid, he reasons, the economy and households become self-sustaining.

Easterly on the other hand is skeptical of aid, mainly “because aid typically comes with an attempt to influence policies, often at the cost of actually worsening the politics by continuing to spend aid even when leaders are corrupt”. Instead, developing countries should be left on their own to find their way to success, primarily through a free market. I can understand his skepticism to aid: often foreign aid goes into the pockets of corrupt leaders or gangs, or never gets used at all.

To this, Sachs posits that aid should be directed to specific, easily monitored goals (like malaria, food production, drinking water, and sanitation). In this I can agree with him. Though I am skeptical of the usefulness of aid like Easterly, I find Easterly’s trust in the market to be possibly even more optimistic than Sachs’ devotion to aid. Specifically directed and carefully controlled aid could target problems more effectively, whereas the market often favors those who already have economic power, incentivising cheap labor and increased profits for the wealthy.

There is, of course, no way through either belief to make absolutely sure that aid works as intended or that the market benefits poor people. I also agree with Easterly that solutions to problems in these countries have to be localised and include the opinions and knowledge of those who actually live there. We can’t simply shake our heads and pat Africans on the head for not knowing what’s good for them — they know best what they want and, given enough opportunity for education, could very well find their own unique solutions to problems that a Western institution wouldn’t. But I think we, as “developed” countries in general, have a moral responsibility to care for those who need a hand up. At the very least, we should act as background encouragement, not taking up space, but instead allowing impoverished people to take the spotlight and say their own words on their situation. This, I believe, is a more appropriate way to view aid.  

Part 2:

I feel that overall, as an entire book, Banerjee and Duflo do sufficiently addressed SDGs 1&2 (“end poverty in all forms everywhere” and “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”). They discuss common theories and ideas about how to solve these problems, often through the words of Sachs, while offering their own research and unique viewpoints. This would be a good introductory book for those wanting to go deeper into economic policy, challenging commonly held beliefs (like hunger-based poverty traps or the naturally-entrepreneurial poor), while offering suggestions on how to further research solutions.

Local measures seem to work better than ones simply created on a national scale (often a certain village’s situation will be different from the common norm of the country), and those that involve women tend to fare better because the women often have reason and incentive to achieve more for themselves and their families. At the heart of most programs, the impoverished people have to want to participate. Otherwise it doesn’t work, such as shopkeepers refusing loans because they have no motivation to grow their business.

I do not think that global measures have been taken sufficiently as there is clearly still a large problem with poverty and hunger in many places in the world. It will probably be a long while till we get anywhere close to that. Hopefully, though, there can be some improvements on a local or national level, like the educational programs taking place in Rwanda. 

Banerjee and Duflo argue that micro-credits really only work for those who already have an idea of how they want to grow their business. There are many, for instance the shop-owning couple in Cica Das, who are entrepreneurs solely because they have no other options for jobs. So while it might be true to say that a large portion of the poor are “entrepreneurs”, they own small and relatively unprofitable businesses that will not be able to make enough money to be worth their time. When offered a microloan, many of these people opt out because they don’t think growing would be worth the trouble, or they do not actually want to run their business in the first place. So micro-financing isn’t for everyone in every case. Rather, these are opportunities only certain inspired individuals would benefit from taking.

Where microfinances do work, however, is with those who use their ideas and ingenuity to grow their business or manage their personal finances to become profitable. To, as Banerjee and Duflo would phrase it: “cross the hump”, which requires both personal skill and quite a lot of upfront money, something microfinancing by its very definition does not deal with.  Some successful examples include Jennifer Auma, who used several different types of local ROSCAs to diversify her portfolio and use loans wisely. So for her, microfinancing works. For others like the couple in Cica Das or Ben Sedan the cow owner, the upfront costs or motivation needed to really make their situations profitable is not worth the extra labor of becoming more involved in microfinancing and taking out loans.

I agree with Banerjee and Duflo’s assessment of microfinancing. It makes logical sense that, just like in developed countries, there are some people who are built for entrepreneurship, and many who are not. Also, a general sense of stability and hope may be needed before people in extreme poverty are willing to take a look at long-term investments, which just isn’t possible in the day-to-day struggles of their current lives.

Micro-credits, for all their possible downfalls, do appear to be working in Rwanda. Beginning in its infancy in 1975, the microfinancing sector of Rwanda didn’t really grow until the late 1990s (due to donor relief funds following the genocide), and even then the success of those MFIs was marginal at best until the government stepped in to structure the unregulated system. In September of 2006, the government adopted a formal National Microfinance Policy, including a specific law (Law No. 40/2008), which in 2008 defined the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) as the main regulator of the microfinance sector (1). The National Bank of Rwanda is now mandated to regulate and supervise MFIs through licensing, off, and on-site inspections (2). Since then, the overall number of MFIs has gone down, but this is due to restructuring into a much more organized and regulated system.

As of recently, microfinancing has seen particular success in cutting down on the number of bad loans. According to the BNR, bad loans in the sector dropped by 4.3 percentage points in the third quarter of 2017 to 8% (3). Pierre Uwizeye, the acting executive director the Association of Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda (AMIR), said the association is “currently working with stakeholders to support MFIs to acquire new software that will enable them to automate their systems and improve efficiency and transparency” (3). It would seem that Rwanda is indeed tightening its regulations on MFIs and introducing software to improve the successes of the micro financing sector, which seem to be wise decisions as microfinancing should be regulated.

Also recently, in Rwanda, AMIR is urging “key sector players to design appropriate products to improve consumer protection and reduce losses both clients and financial institutions” (4). This is to better serve their customers, who cannot afford the strictness of commercial banks, especially in rural areas. Straton Habyarimana, of  SEEP Network, a non-profit organization working with AMIR, stresses that financial “institutions should design financial products that respond to the needs of each client. Banks should not think for them without consulting them” (4). This is especially true considering the number of Rwandans turning to MFIs increases as commercial banks in the country adopt a more conservative lending approach with tighter rules (5).

Reflecting critically:

The analysis seems accurate and fair in identifying the countries most off-track in terms of meeting the goals of ending extreme poverty. Before reading this I hadn’t thought about the possibility of certain developing countries having a much more successful time cutting down on poverty than others, and it would be interesting to explore reasons for those differences. I am glad to see that Rwanda is not included in this list of countries.

However, it seems a bit oversimplified to say that ending extreme poverty could be achieved by simply directing more aid to these countries. As has been discussed in previous posts, aid is not always distributed or handled correctly and while the article does point out less of a gap in the success rates of project from off-track countries and on-track ones, this doesn’t excuse the fact that there is still aid that would fail to be put to good use. A more in-depth exploration and plan would be needed, with perhaps more direct objectives, to ensure more aid is being used responsibly in the off-track countries.

Is Digital Technology Making a Difference?

Let’s take a look at a specific example to help answer such a broad question. “Digital technology” can be defined in many ways, but for microfinancing in particular this includes performance monitoring softwares (PMT), which enhance transparency and efficiency among MFIs. The software also allows easier access to credit by the rural poor, and create a center for data collection of all credit institutions at the AMIR headquarters in Kigali (3). Another benefit of the software is that it reduces operation costs, which in turn lowers interests rates, making microfinancing more affordable and accessible to those in extreme poverty. So on the whole digital technology, in the form of these PMTs, can greatly help the sector, increasing its assets by 9.5% during the third quarter of 2017 to 242.4 billion Rwandan franc. (3). 

If we expand the definition of digital technology to include the rise in mobile phones and wireless internet, then these greatly improve accessibility, especially for rural villagers, to access their accounts, make transactions, and manage payment systems for their businesses. In particular, MFIs often target women due to the fact that women are the agents of change in families, meaning that whenever they have resources they use them to the benefit of their children (6). The application of these loans do not even necessarily need to be made in the interest of a specific business; often loans are taken out for family emergencies or to put their children through school (6). Digital technology, then, can not only help the microfinancing sector in general, but also improve the lives of individuals and families who, thanks to improvements in technology, can expand their business and manage their money more efficiently. 

Resources:

1. http://www.afr.rw/resources/publications/article/microfinance-challenge-fund-rwanda-end-of-project-evaluation
2. https://www.bnr.rw/index.php?id=186
3. https://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/226685  
4. https://www.newtimes.co.rw/business/why-micro-finance-institutions-must-have-consumer-protection-policies
5. http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/business/Rwandans-microlender-banks-tighten-rules/2560-4198648-sf0as3z/index.html
6. https://www.techrepublic.com/article/10-things-to-know-about-how-microfinancing-is-using-tech-to-empower-global-entrepreneurs/