Understanding
London
A Review of
My Son The Fanatic
Review by Marvin
X (El Muhajir)
My Son The Fanatic
Director:
Udayan Prasad
/
Cast:
Om Puri, Rachel Griffiths, Stellan Skarsgård,
Akbar Kurtha
In
light of recent events in London, I thought it would be
important for a clearer understanding of London's Muslim
community to resend this review of the film My Son The
Fanatic.
Most
western politicians, media spooks and experts refuse to address
the root cause of young men and women willing to self destruct
as suicide bombers or why they choose to become fundamentalist
Muslims. Westerners and the moderate Muslim experts continue in
denial that white supremacy is the root cause of their former
colonial subjects desire to remove the last vestiges of the
disease of cultural imperialism.
White
supremacy has spread hopelessness in young Muslims in Europe and
cultural imperialism has spread it to the former colonies, now
neo-colonial regimes best described by journalist Ayman Al Amir,
who recently said, “Terrorism is the consequence of political
ostracism, not religious fanaticism. It is fermented not in the
mosques of Egypt or the madrassas of Pakistan but in solitary
confinement cells, torture chambers, and the environment of fear
wielded by dictatorial regimes.”
The
film reveals that Muslims in Europe, and London in particular,
are not only politically disenfranchised but culturally,
economically, and spirituality alienated as well.
This
alienation is simply the nature of the beast, the Mother
Country, that devours the little people from the colonies who
seek comfort in the Mother but are rejected for being less than
human, thus in a twist of the Oedipus complex, they seek to
destroy the Mother who has all but destroyed them, stunted their
personalities and possibilities for human and spiritual
development.
The Review
…Essentially,
it is about the colonized man, the colonized family and its
attempt at de-colonization. Ironically, we are challenged to
decide who is the fanatic, the father or the son, for both are
battling their supposed demons. For the son, it is western
culture—the father fights to escape eastern culture, i.e., his
Pakistani roots. The son wants to return to his religious roots,
Islamic fundamentalism. The father is fanatically in love with
secularism—he is non-religious, in love with jazz, blues,
alcohol and whores, one in particular.
What
if Osama Bin Laden and his band of devils came to your house at
the invitation of your son? When his son comes under the
influence of fundamental Islam, he get his father to allow a
Muslim teacher to visit from Lahore, Pakistan, turning the house
into an Islamic center, which the father reluctantly allows
because of his deep love for his son. Although he arranges for
his son to marry a London policeman’s daughter, the son
rejects his father’s request, opting for Islam, claiming the
girl represents the worst of western culture. Couldn’t he see
how the policeman abhorred him, the son asks the father.
The
father is blind: his loveless job as a London taxi driver
exposes him to street life and he succumbs, falling seriously in
love with a whore, rejecting his homely wife who has failed to
inspire him, perhaps because she doesn’t represent the
decadent western culture he loves, symbolized and summarized in
the whore. For him, the whore has life, love, tenderness, and
freedom. Why can’t he get this at home? Is it because the wife
represents the old world he rejects so totally? …After
his son and comrades attack the whores for being whores—the
son actually attacks his father’s whore, spitting on her, and
striking her in a violent anti-prostitution riot, forcing the
father to expel the imam, with the son departing in disgust.
…In
the German trick Mr. Schitz, we see the arrogance of western man
who derides the father for being the “little man.” What can
the little man from the East do with the white whore, the symbol
of western civilization? The little man is inferior by nature,
with defects, genetic of course, which disqualifies him from
being on par with western man.
Mr.
Schitz can pat the “little man” or eastern man on the head,
kick him to the ground and apply any number of verbal insults,
until eastern man finds a bat in the truck of his car and
threatens to use it. Of course, this is the colonized man
fighting back, regaining his manhood. The father fights on a
personal level, the son on a politico-religious level, but both
are fighting colonialism.
Their
misunderstanding each other’s fight is symbolic of the tension
between moderate and fundamental Muslims. We know we cannot go
back to Islam of the Prophet’s day, but nor can we accept the
passivity of the moderates. There is no excuse for one billion
Muslims being humiliated by a few million Jews in Israel. This
is not a question of hatred, but the result of political
backwardness, the non-use of power. With Muslim unity, the
Palestinian problem could be resolved tomorrow morning.
Until
contradictions between moderate and fundamental Muslims are
resolved, eastern man will not be able to successfully challenge
western man. This, of course, will necessitate revolution
because moderate Muslims control most Islamic societies and have
no plans to give up power without a struggle—those who
struggle against them being described as terrorists to
disqualify legitimate freedom fighters who will ultimately
challenge the corrupt, undemocratic, secular Muslim nations.
The
final question is what will be the nature of the new Nation of
Islam. Can fundamentalism function in the modern era or is it
antithetical? Will it be repressive, will it be democratic in
any sense, not necessarily in the western democratic sense? Will
Iran be an example? Tunisia? Turkey? For sure, the motion in the
Muslim world will lead to a synthesis of the best of the old and
the new.
Let
us understand clearly, if the reactionary secular regimes cannot
or do not eradicate ignorance, poverty and disease, they will be
replaced.
The
father’s love of the whore was real. She represented the poor
underclass that even the revolutionary son could not accept
because of his moral myopia. If the father had married her
(another wife being acceptable in Islam), perhaps the son would
have respected him and the tension between the old and new would
have eased, allowing the possibility of a better day.
After
the present convolutions, look for a marriage between old Islam
and the new, between East and West. We will either come together
or go to hell together. For all his attempts to claim allegiance
to the Islamic past, Osama Bin Laden is the most modern of men,
using modern technology, modern weapons, modern financial
systems, and modern media techniques to the best of his ability.
* * *
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This film review appears in Marvin X's book
of essays, In the Crazy House Called America, Black Bird
Press, 2002. Send $19.95 to Black Bird Press, 11132 Nelson Bar
Road, Cherokee CA 95965. Marvin X is now available for
lecture/readings. Contact him at the above address or call
510-472-9589. In September/October, he will be on a tour of
the dirty south and funky east coast. He's looking for
venues in your city.
posted 5 August 2005
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"Religion is what keeps the poor
from murdering the rich." Napoleon
Bonaparte
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Marvin X and His Parables
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Books by Marvin X
Love and War: Poems /
In the Crazy House Called America
Woman: Man's Best Friend /
Beyond Religion Toward Spirituality
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Pray the Devil Back to Hell
A film directed by Gini
Reticker
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
is a captivating new film by director Gini Reticker.
It exposes a different story angle for the largely
forgotten recent events of the women of Liberia
uniting to bring the end to their nation's civil
war. This film is amazing in the way it captivates
your attention from the earliest frames. It doesn't
shy away from showing footage of the violent events
that took place during the Liberian civil war. But
the main story of the film is that of
Leymah Gbowee
and the other women uniting, despite their religious
differences, to force action on the stalled peace
talks in their country. Using entirely nonviolent
methods, not only are the peace talks successful,
but Charles Taylor, the president of Liberia, is
forced into exile leading to the first election of a
female head of state in Africa. The women of this
film are truly an inspiration and no one can fail to
be moved by the message of hope that comes through
clearly in this film. These are heroes that deserve
to be remembered and with Pray the Devil we are able
to do that, gaining both a knowledge of the history
we are ignorant of through archival footage and an
understanding of the leaders of this movement
through close-up interviews with the many women who
lead it. The film also offers a great soundtrack &
inspirational song- "Djoyigbe" by Angelique Kidjo &
Blake Leyh.—Amazon
Reviewer |
 |
* * * *
*
 |
Mighty Be Our Powers
How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War
By Leymah Gbowee
As a young woman, Leymah Gbowee was broken by the Liberian civil war, a brutal conflict that tore apart her life and claimed the lives of countless relatives and friends. Years of fighting destroyed her country—and shattered Gbowee’s girlhood hopes and dreams. As a young mother trapped in a nightmare of domestic abuse, she found the courage to turn her bitterness into action, propelled by her realization that it is women who suffer most during conflicts—and that the power of women working together can create an unstoppable force. In 2003, the passionate and charismatic Gbowee helped organize and then led the Liberian Mass Action for Peace, a coalition of Christian and Muslim women who sat in public protest, confronting Liberia’s ruthless president and rebel warlords, and even held a sex strike. With an army of women, Gbowee helped lead her nation to peace—in the process emerging as an international leader who changed history. Mighty Be Our Powers is the gripping chronicle of a journey from hopelessness to empowerment that will touch all who dream of a better world.—Beast Books / Pray the Devil Back to Hell |
* * * * *
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By Nidaa Khoury
Khoury's poetry is fired by belief in
the human and the spiritual at a time
when many of us feel unreal and often
spiritually hollow.—Yair
Huri, Ben-Gurion University
Written in water and ink, in between the
shed blood. Nidaa Khoury's poems take us
to the bosom of an ancient woman . . .
an archetype revived. The secret she
whispers is 'smaller than words.'—Karin
Karakasli, author, Turkey
Nidaa Khoury was born in Fassouta, Upper
Galilee, in 1959. Khoury is the author
of seven books published in Arabic and
several other languages, including The
Barefoot River, which appeared in Arabic
and Hebrew and The Bitter Crown,
censored in Jordan. The Palestinian poet
is studied in Israeli universities and
widely reviewed by the Arab press. The
founder of the Association of Survival,
an NGO for minorities in Israel, Khoury
has participated in over 30
international literary and human rights
conferences and festivals. Khoury is the
subject of the award-winning film, Nidaa
Through Silence. Currently a senior
lecturer at Ben-Gurion University,
Khoury's poem Portal to the Orient is
being produced by Sarab for Dance for
performance in Palestine. Book of Sins
introduces this important Middle Eastern
poet to the Caribbean and the Americas. |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 30 July 2008
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