Islam and Anarchism with Mohamed Abdou

Islam and Anarchism with Mohamed Abdou

From The Final Straw Radio

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This week, Scott spoke with Mohamed Abdou, a North African-Egyptian Muslim anarchist activist-scholar who is currently a Visiting Scholar at Cornell University and an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the American University of Cairo. Mohamed is the author of the recent book, Islam and Anarchism: Relationships and Resonances published by Pluto Press in 2022.

For nearly 2 hours, Scott and Mohamed speak about Mohamed’s experience of the Tahrir Square uprising of 2011 and the western media coverage of it, current unrest in Iran, Orientalism, decolonial education, Islam, Settler Colonialism, anarchism and a lot more.

You can follow Mohamed on Twitter at @minuetInGMinor or on facebook at @MohammadAbdou2020

Upcoming

Stay tuned next week for a chat with the organizers of the 2022 Atlanta Radical Bookfair and another surprise topic. For patreon supporters, pretty soon we should be sharing early releases of conversations with Robert Graham about his 2015 book “We Don’t Fear Anarchy, We Invoke It” and with Matthew Lyons on far right christian movements and other chats. More on how to support us at tfsr.wtf/support.

Announcements

And now a few brief announcements

Asheville Survival Program Benefit

For listeners in the Asheville area, you’re invited to an outdoor Movie Night benefit for Asheville Survival Program halloweeny season double feature on Saturday October 8th at 6pm at the Static Age River Spot. There’ll be food, music and merch. To find out more sbout the venue, you can contact Asheville Survival via their email or social media, found at linktr.ee/avlsurvival

Atlanta Radical Bookfair

If you’re in the southeast of Turtle Island, consider visiting so-called Atlanta on Saturday, October 15th where from noon to 6pm you’ll find the Atlanta Radical Bookfair at The Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History in Georgia. There’ll be speakers and many tables, including us!

Hurricane Ian Relief

If you want to offer support to folks in Florida around Hurricane Ian, one place to start could be with Central Florida Mutual Aid. They have tons of ways to plug in remotely or on the ground for what is likely to be a long and arduous cleanup and repair effort. You can learn more about them at linktr.ee/CFLMutualAid

Also, Firestorm books is collecting donations of emergency goods at their storefront in Asheville.

A image of text that reads: MUTUAL AID DISASTER RELIEF: A grass-roots donation drive to help families affected by Hurricane lan in Florida. EMERGENCY RELIEF DRIVE - Critically Needed Supplies CLEANUP: • heavy duty storage totes • heavy duty tarps • gas and gas cans glasses • generators • roofing nails • wire brushes • trash bags • brooms • mops • crowbars/prybars/hammers • chainsaws • moisture sensors • dehumidifiers • box fans • 5 gal buckets • respirators and n-95 cartridges • 2x4s • bleach PERSONAL NEEDS: • baby formula • coolers • dollar store water • gatorade • sweets/candies/comfort items/kids snacks • laundry detergent • washboards • mosquito spray • toilet paper • solar charging items and battery banks • apple cider vinegar • diapers • baby wipes To donate supplies, drop them at Firestorm Books 610 Haywood Rd. Asheville, NC anytime the bookstore is open For more information on how you can help, visit mutualaiddisasterrelief.org

Prisons in the Wake of Ian

We’ve regrettably missed the opportunity to promote the phone zap campaigns to raise awareness of prisoners in the path of Hurricane Ian before the storm hit, but suggest that folk check out FightToxicPrisons.Wordpress.Com to learn more about efforts to press public officials to heed the calls to protect prisoners during storms like this rather than follow the path of inertia and cheapness that leads to unnecessary deaths of folks behind bars.

#ShutDownADOC2022

There is currently a prison strike within the Alabama Department of Urgent Phone Zap On 9/29, Robert Earl Council (aka Kinetic Justice) was assaulted by guards and placed in solitary confinement at Limestone Correctional Facility as retaliation for his exposing the ADOC and participating in the Alabama prison strike Call Warden William Streeter at (256) 233-4600 Call Commisioner John Hamm at (334) 353-3883 -DEMAND Robert Earl Council be released from solitary -DEMAND no more retaliation -DEMAND all prisoner demands be met #shutdownADOC2022 UTIONSCorrections known by the hashtag #ShutDown ADOC2022. Campaigners have organized a call-in campaign to demand an end to retaliation against Kinetic Justice (s/n Robert Earl Council) who has been assaulted by guards on September 29th and placed in solitary confinement as well as retaliation of any prisoners participating, Kinetic’s release from solitary and the meeting of prisoners demands. Supporters are asking folks to call Warden William Streeter at (256) 233-4600 or Commissioner John Hamm at (334) 353-3883. You can find a recent interview with Kinetic at Unicorn Riot, as well as more on the prison strike at UnicornRiot.Ninja

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There are 14 Comments

I can accept anarcho-islamism the moment this guy can question the existence of Allah, thank you.

And for having seen at least two Euro squats being taken over by Muslim dudes I can testify that non-White fascism IS A THING, and religion plays a huge part in it.

one of the first things Abdou says in this interview is about confronting our own inner micro-fascisms. your demand that he question Allah before you will engage further with his work seems like such a thing. (as if any religious worth their salt did not start from the questioning of god).

academics are priests anyways. fuck academia (as if any academic worth their salt did not start from the questioning of academia, therefore legitimizing their practice)

lol, anarchists (especially) desperately cling to their micro-fascist assumptions

meaningless buzzwords. cling to deez macro-nutz

authcoms be like “ackshually, anarchists are the most authoritarian of all and god’s will and dictatorship of the proletariat is so based!”

if my words were meaningless to you why do you bother to reply?

for myself, i do not follow any religion. by the same token, i am not so full of myself to think i can determine for another what beliefs they should or should not have. yes, for the most part orgaized religion is anathema to anarchism, but that doesn't mean that there hasn't been Christian, Jewish & Muslim anarchists. nothing is all of one thing and none of the other but incompleteness is probably a foreign concept for many.

"authcom"

go back to reddit, dork.

I consider myself Xian anarchist, and yea I question this whole story pretty often, as well as the existence Xian "God" and of an afterlife. I accept that all of this could only be fairy tales for adults, but on theother hand there is still a solid possibility that this may be all true... even and especially if you look at the history of Middle-eastern religions, where the Lord always came in the chat at some point to rectify some things.

But this could also be some hidden aspect of history that is still beyond us. Like the apparent presence of "flying wheels" and Grey alien-like angels could mean that what we were taught is both horrifyingly true, and false.

Nah fuck all religion. It inherently requires indoctrination (and therefore domination over children and the ignorant) and relies on believing blatant mistruths (and so is unintelligent and unanarchic.)

Fuck all anarchism too. It inherently requires indoctrination (and therefore domination over children and the ignorant) and relies on believing blatant mistruths (and so is unintelligent and unanarchic.)

OM anti-G, That is sooo correct about the " -ism-centric " anarchist rhetoric. Bravo!

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