Arts and Culture

Liberalism, Poverty, and Islam

Shadaab Rahemtulla , Canada, Friday 16 November 2007

“Laziness”. “Lack of ambition”. “Lack of education”. These are the words that often come out of my Muslim friends’ mouths whenever we drive through the Downtown Eastside, one of Canada’s poorest neighborhoods. Although I get angry when hearing such words, they hardly surprise me. After all, such attitudes towards poverty are not “personal” and isolated feelings. Rather, they are representative of the dominant ideology of our own society – liberalism.

The notions of “choice” and “merit” are seminal components of liberalism. One of the most popular folk-tales in mainstream movies is the script of the man who, by his own uncanny perseverance and hard work, goes from being a complete nobody to a wealthy self-employed tycoon. The central myth in this script is that we, as individuals, are solely responsible for where we stand in society. In other words, the “common-sense” notion is that our society is a meritocracy – an individual’s class standing is solely a result of his own effort or merit. Hence, the notion of “choice” plays a central role in a liberalist framework, as we as individuals get to choose where we stand in the socio-economic ladder.

There are numerous problems with liberalism. First, it does not take into account that the vast majority of people do not start out on the same foot. The fact of the matter is that wealthier segments of society have greater access to superior education. They also have greater access to money in general, such as through family trusts, bonds, stocks, familial connections, and especially inheritance. If you stand at the bottom of society, your ability to achieve greater social mobility is seriously hampered (regardless of how hard you work) because of the fact that you barely have any resources to start with. Second, liberalism gives off the false impression that everyone – no matter how rich or poor – has a “choice” as to where they wish to stand in the socio-economic ladder. Although I agree that everyone has a “choice” to some degree, it is important to note that the number and quality of choices people have depends on their class standing.

The biggest problem with liberalism is that it takes part in “blaming the victims”. This phrase was first coined by American author William Ryan back in the early 1970s. Blaming the victims involves focusing on the individual over societal structures. In other words, it individualizes greater social issues, and in doing so, blames those who are poor for their own suffering. A classic manifestation of this is the dominant set of attitudes held, especially by Muslims, towards the Downtown Eastside. The minute we drive by or set foot in the Downtown Eastside, the liberalist framework of blaming the victims instantly sets into place - we immediately label those who are poverty-stricken with justifications such as “laziness”, “lack of education”, and “lack of ambition”. Conversely, we also implicitly legitimize our own economic position by falsely concluding that these fools simply made stupid “choices”. Moreover, the practice of blaming the victims diverts attention away from the real causes of such poverty, such as structures and institutions within our society that promote the interests of those on the top by emphasizing wealth accumulation, efficiency, and profit-maximization.

We need to challenge the way we think about the world around us.

As Muslims, many of us couldn’t care less about issues of social injustice, such as poverty in the Downtown Eastside. This is ironic, since a simple reading of the Qur’an would reveal that we have a responsibility to stand up for those who have been neglected by society; God repeatedly, unceasingly, and tirelessly re-iterates the importance of alleviating the oppression of poverty. He even warns us about straying from the Straight Path with the following question: “Who is he who has denied the Deen (religion)? That is the one who drives away the orphan, and does not urge the feeding of the needy” (Surat al-Maun; 1-3).

Isn’t it hypocritical that we sit in the mosques talking about how the Prophet (peace be upon him) stood up for the poverty-stricken against the wealthy elite of Mecca, and yet on the drive to and from the mosque silently scoff at those who are engulfed in poverty?

It’s time we re-discovered Islam and realized that there’s more to worshipping God then simply praying and preaching to others; we need to understand that as Muslims we need to have compassion for human suffering, which will drive us to fight against social injustice and poverty within our society.



* This article first appeared in the Al-Ameen newspaper of Vancouver, BC, of which Shadaab was a regular contributor. Shadaab H. Rahemtulla is a graduate student in history at Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, British Columbia).