Why I Don't Buy the Concept of Identity Politics

By Najad Abdul-Aziz

1. Because I really couldn’t give a rats arse as to who exactly is conservative or progressive. Yes, labels do suck, but so does the notion of dividing lines when it is these times we should all stand united. Corny? Probably. Idealistic? Yes. But all we have is each other.
2. Who the heck is Hussien Ibish? Perhaps I don’t really care. Actually, I don’t.
3. Save the capitalist critique? Give me a break. Have you read about the destructive nature of capitalist greed? I recommend it - it’s a theoretical equivalent of a cold shower, sure to turn you off your underwear fetish.

4. Mean butt personal attacks is all a product of the Muslim obsession with identity. Get with the program people, we won't agree on just what constitutes “progressive” and “conservative”, so why the heck bother. Do we have way too much time on our hands when all we think about is to constantly justify ourselves while the very fragment of society is falling apart?
5. A fashionable way of being Muslim? Just what is that exactly? To be complicit to a society where your freedom and liberties are eroded away, but we’ll just work around that right, because it’s the New World. Oh I forgot, that’s America. No actually, it’s also Australia.
6. Why should an endless diatribe of the empowering nature of hijab and how degrading consumerist culture is ( or vice versa for those who think otherwise) hold any water? Oh yes – identity politics. Well kids, I doubt imperialist (yes that word, get over it) forces really care what’s on your head, or how little clothing you’re actually wearing. Once that’s understood, can we move on to matters that actually concern ways to alleviate the impoverished and oppressed?
7. How is a mixed-gender prayer supposed to make history, when “Make Poverty History” was a farce. Oh yeah, one’s identity, the other is an exercise to identify the greed of G8 nations. Isn’t the G8 responsible for economic oppression, and in all honesty, a debate about who should lead prayer is probably kinda meaningless to a Muslim man or woman living in a slum in the third world.
8. The Western Muslim’s fixation of how to be represented to our communities is overrated. Why should we appeal to a system that is itself corrupt and deteriorating, yet we soooo live to be accepted by it. The only way to move forward (read Progression) is to propose actual alternatives, not “deal with it” or even come up with religious justification to globalise with the rest of the world, which is in itself a move towards ignorance.

Najad Abdul-Aziz is a journalism student from Melbourne, Australia.