PIEDAD and Inclusivity

[anna_katabi]

PIEDAD was a support group founded in 1988 for new Latina Muslim women in Florida (p5). It provided support for new Muslim women with educational and social services. The group’s dawah process relied on friendship, teaching, inclusivity, and a continued life of learning. PIEDAD did not forge hierarchical relationships in its organization between the learner and the teacher, and it addressed the needs of new Muslim women. Not relying on hierarchical relationships to teach piety, ideas, and practices is clever. Too often, in many areas of our lives like school, learning and teaching rely on hierarchies, which is counterproductive.
Morales explains that in Sunni Islam knowledge is concentrated in the ulema: Islamic scholars. They are recognized as more knowledgeable than regular Muslims. PIEDAD only taught “what we are sure is correct” and relied on a sheikh or imam for the more profound questions (p.6). Therefore, most of their teachings came from an outside male and probably non-Latino Islamic scholar. They did not have their own religious scholars and were critiqued for being new Muslims teaching new Muslims about Islam. Another issue is how an imam who does not know about the reality of new Latina Muslims can help tackle personal questions raised by PIEDAD members. Would it have been possible for women in the organization to become Islamist scholars and be recognized as such?
Morales explains that “broader Muslim groups” argue that Islam promotes racial inclusivity and equality (p.6). PIEDAD was critiqued for only addressing Latina women new to Islam and has since changed its stance. The group later included all women new to Islam. They worried it would create divisions in the Muslim community. I am wondering if it is necessarily a bad thing to create specific groups to welcome various identities in Islam. In the case of PIEDAD, Latina women could more easily relate to other women in the same situation as them to learn and understand Islam. But it would be a problem if the group would completely change Islam’s values, practices, and teachings.

[pashamkhan]

Thanks for this critical look at PIEDAD, @anna_katabi. I'm hoping we'll get a chance to talk about this matter in class.