How to Write About Muslims

When writing an article on Muslims, there are rules.

Rule #1: Make sure to use the words 'Terrorists' or 'ISIS' in your title. Other words you can use are 'Jihadi', 'Attacks' or 'Cult'.

Rule #2: All Muslims are the same. If one forces his daughter to wear hijab, they all must. If one beats his wife, it must be because the Qur’an told him to do it. And if one young Muslim woman gets a PhD and then chooses a husband…oh wait, no…that would obviously never happen.

Rule #3: Always assume a Muslim woman needs to be saved, and write accordingly.

Rule #4: Ignore positive examples.

Rule #5: It Is Always the Muslim’s Fault. 

Rule #6: Always be confident that you know everything there is to know about Islam, and that you understand it better than most Muslims do.

Rule #7:  In the unlikely event that you are missing any information regarding Muslims, consult a Muslim spokesperson with whom most Muslims will disagree (because Muslims generally have a poor understanding of their own experiences and cannot be trusted to provide reliable information.)

Rule #8: Everything Muslims do has to do with Islam and Islam alone. Their cultural background and its possible influences in their lives must be ignored.

Rule #9: If culture is mentioned, ensure that it is clear that it is inherently barbaric and violent (especially toward women.)

Rule #10: Always remember that Muslims are not real Canadians (or Americans, British, etc.)

Rule #11: Only Trust Muslim “Reformists.” You can only consider the voices of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji, Wafa Sultan, and Mona Eltahawy. Theirs are the only valid voices of Muslim women, because they've realized the error of their ways. Never trust a woman wearing hijab – obviously someone put her up to it.

Rule #12: Be as melodramatic as possible. Enhance this through your use of provocative words. For e.g when talking about women, emphasize their abuse. Use words such as 'prisoner' or 'chained'. This wording successfully suggests that the lives of Muslim women are not free, and it is only in death that they can achieve this freedom. Conversely, non-Muslim women have zero constraints in their lives and are always, always free.

Rule #13: Make a few jabs at feminists. Point out how useless feminists are when it comes to Muslim women. They should know that they are supposed to speak for all women, and that all women have exactly the same needs. Any desires to repect and honour women of diverse cultural backgrounds should be seen as incompetence.

Rule #14: Take Every Anecdote As Gospel. It’s important, of course, that whenever you have a negative experience in a Muslim country, you make general, sweeping statements about how that experience is the norm, like “It is well known that the Arabs and Muslims kept and still keep sex slaves” and “A fully ‘covered’ girl-child, anywhere between the ages of 10-15, may still be forced into an arranged marriage, perhaps with her first cousin, perhaps with a man old enough to be her grandfather, and she is not allowed to leave him, not even if he beats her black and blue every single day.”Nevermind the thousands of Muslim women who are waiting until they finish their educations to get married. Nevermind the legal reforms. Obviously, only negative experiences count, because all Muslims are the same!

Bonus marks: Sneak in a reference to Israel, especially when it is completely irrelevant.

Paper 2 Practice

In Things Fall Apart, Achebe indicates that in Igbo cultures, proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten. A proverb, is a phrase which briefly yet strikingly expresses some recognized truth or observation about practical life which has been preserved by oral tradition. Achebe makes use of the proverb to provide a 'grammar of values' to which the protagonists can be measured to. Therefore, it reminds the audience of some of the motifs in the novel such as importance of status and the value of achievement; and reiterate themes. In chapter one, the proverb “He who brings kola brings life” is used to show the audience the value and the tradition of passing the kola nut for fellowship and alliance in Igbo culture. Many of the proverbs refer to animals in the bush to make a cultural point. The proverb, "Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too. If one says no to the other, let his wing break” uses natural imagery to compliment the process of making (or breaking) covenants, in this case between Nwakibie and Okonkwo. Some of the proverbs use local myths or mythical characters to illustrate a point. Nwakibie also uses a proverb to describe his wise and careful attitude toward those who would borrow from him. He says, “Eneke the bird says that since men have learned to shoot without missing, he has learned to fly without perching". Achebe also uses proverbs and sayings to describe his characters especially Okonkwo. He is described by an old man thus: “looking at a king’s mouth one would think he never sucked at his mother’s breast”. Such a proverbial descriptor defines Okonkwo as being proud as a king but also very self supporting and having a quick rise to fame and fortune. The proverb makes his character so much more vivid and alive than any other literary device.

Achebe also includes traditional songs scattered throughout his novel. Many of the songs combines cultural themes and traditions with imagery that helps the reader share the Igbo's vision of their world. In addition, Achebe translates the villagers’ songs into English but leaves Okonkwo’s song in its original language. Since a majority of the village later becomes Christian and colonized, their songs could be written in English to show the “shiftiness” of their hearts and their inevitable surrender to English occupation and rule. However, Okonkwo is never subdued by the English or Christianity so his mind and heart is unreservedly African. Perhaps that is why Achebe leaves his thoughts un-translated.

Myths represent a society's perception of the deepest truths. Myths have their roots in the primitive
folk beliefs of a people or a nation and generally present supernatural episodes as a means of interpreting natural events in order to concretize or particularize a special perception of man
or his cosmic view. Myths tries to explain away the origin of creation, the origin of life and death, and tries to account for natural phenomena and the great forces found in nature. In Things Fall Apart a memorable folk tale is told Ezinma by her mother Ekwefi. It is the story of the birds

and the tortoise who accompanied the birds to a great feast in the sky. The simple tale of Tortoise and the birds is a parallel for the entire novel. It is the story of the sudden rise and fall of Tortoise, just as Things Fall Apart is the story of the rise and fall of Okonkwo. The story says that the birds lent Tortoise their feathers so he could accompany them to the sky. This is similar of the massive communal support given to Okonkwo by his people that enabled him to be Umuofia's proud and imperious emissary on a mission of war to Mbaino where he "was treated with great honour and respect" just as the hosts in the sky took Tortoise "as the king of the birds". After Okonkwo's elevation to membership in the highest decision-making body in the land, he is exiled to Mbanta , abandoned even by his closest friends who took part in destroying his compound. After Tortoise is elevated to the highest place in the sky, he is exiled there abandoned by all the birds, his former friends. Tortoise, finding himself deserted in the sky, sent word to a woman, his wife, to arrange for his survival. This parallels Okonkwo's flight to his maternal land and kin for survival. The folk tale tells us that when Parrot misinstructed Tortoise's family, he fell and "his shell broke into pieces." This reflects Okonkwo's return from exile only to find Umuofia "breaking up and falling apart". Now, the folk tale says that a great medicine man gathered all the bits of shell and stuck them together to give Tortoise his rough "skin." After Okonkwo's suicide, the tribe, though broken, was held together and stuck together by the sheer resilience of collective will, after, according to Obierika, the white man has "put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart". Tortoise survives, a patchwork of himself, just as Igbo clanship survives.

In many ways, Achebe uses Igbo folk ways to enrich his narrative, to give it form and structure, and from there, to inoculate it with meaning. This is the tradition he has established in the African novel.

Memoir Obierika

Things have fallen apart. I sit here, staring beyond the open yam fields. Yams used to be a "man's crop", it symbolized our culture. Now, it is traded with the foreigners, our culture has been sold to them. But for what price? 

The white men had quietly snaked through our homes. They waved their Bible in the air, a white flag of 'peace'. It was all a lie. From the very beginning.And I should have done something. Okonkwo, "a man of great action", my closest friend, had tried. He dreamed for war against the white men. Despite being one of "the greatest of men", a true warrior, he had lost this battle of power. Losing it, Okonkwo could not stomach it. He hung himself.

But what of our own people who are following their way? How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man "has put a knife on the things that have held us together and we have fallen apart."

Before, the harmony of our world was in place, the reality of our beliefs remained throughout the tribe and our father Chukwu, and most of all, the men and woman of Umofia were fighters, strong fighters. Now decades of tradition, knowledge and power from out ancestors have cracked. They've been turned to dust, blown away by this new lunatic religion, Christianity. It has broken us apart.  It is forcing us to bow down. It is our destruction. 

We underestimated them. They were smart and strategic in their moves. Although Mr. Brown was a gentle and curious soul, he used our religion against us. Using our flaws to give the outcasts hope. We no longer faced them as a unified front and this made opposing them that much harder. The white men did not try to eradicate us by force yet, they preached on our village walkways, promising happy lives and afterlives, and by fraternizing with the untouchables of the clan. Our community was lost.

How easily they stripped us of our power and bent us into submission through their promises of religion and education for our sons and daughters. What we didn't realize was that this education they were offering was simply to shape and form us into mere cogs in their large machine. Only to serve for their needs. 

They promised us salvation and gave us destruction. Things have fallen apart.

Discuss the significance of social status on Things Fall Apart, and comment on its contribution to characterization.

In Igbo culture, personal achievement is emphasized. "Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered." (Ch. 1, pg. 6) Hereditary succession to titles contradicted their notions of leadership. A man gains titles through acquisition of wealth through hard work. This is usually achieved though his productivity of his yam fields, his bravery in war or/and his athletic skill as a wrestler. Marriage, wealth and the acquisition of titles enabled individuals to advance socially. Indirect characterization is achieved in Things Fall Apart through social status. 

Okonkwo "won fame as the greatest wrestler in the nine villages. He was a wealthy farmer and has two barns full of yams, and had just married his third wife. To crown it all he had taken two titles and had shown incredible prowess in two inter-tribal wars...He was already one of the greatest men of his time." (pg. 6, Ch. 1) He is proved to be both extremely hardworking and physically capable. These principal accomplishments establishes Okonkwo's important position in Igbo society. Through this, Achebe shows us that Okoknwo values achievement, power and recognition. "As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings. Okonkwo had clearly washed his hands and so he ate with kings and elders." (pg. 6, Ch. 1) Furthermore, Achebe sets up Okonkwo as man much respected for his considerable achievements and noble virtues-key qualities of Aristotle's tragic hero. Driving himself toward tribal success and recognition, he is trying to bury the unending shame that he feels regarding the faults of his late father, Unoka. Essentially, Okonkwo exhibits qualities of manhood in Igbo society. This gives us further insight into Okonkwo's perception of his culture and how this leads him to create his own social identity.