The Economist UK - 27.07.2019

The EconomistJuly 27th 2019 Books & arts 73

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W

hen john lockebuilt a case for reli-

gious toleration in 1689, he had a few

caveats. Atheists were out—they could not

be trusted—as was anyone whose faith

threatened the social order. Also excluded

were believers who “deliver themselves up

to the protection and service of another

prince” in a foreign land—such as a “Ma-

hometan” with “blind obedience to the

Mufti of Constantinople”. This category in-

cluded Catholics (due to their fealty to the

pope) as well as Muslims. Divided loyalties,

Locke reasoned, made dangerous subjects.

In her new book on the fragile status of

America’s roughly 3.5m Muslims after the

attacks of September 11th 2001, Asma Uddin

identifies a similar prejudice. It may sound

like a “crazy fact”, Ms Uddin writes, but a

central thread of Islamophobia in the Un-

ited States is the preposterous notion that

Islam is not, properly speaking, a religion.

Michael Flynn, briefly Donald Trump’s na-

tional security adviser, said in 2016 that Is-

lam is a “political ideology” that “hides be-

hind the notion of being a religion”. When

Sebastian Gorka, formerly an adviser to Mr

Trump, was asked if the president believed

Islam is a religion, he demurred. “We aren’t

going to get into theological debates,” Mr

Gorka said.

Ms Uddin folds bits of theology, and her

own experience as a Muslim in America,

into her legal and political narrative. “Is-

lam” means “peaceful submission”, she

writes in response to a claim to the con-

trary from Steve Bannon, Mr Trump’s erst-

while strategist. Islamic law is more flexi-

ble than is commonly believed: sharia may

be God’s “divine blueprint”, but “the rules

we derive from it”, or fiqh, are subject to re-

interpretation. Some American Muslim

scholars, for example, now say the Koran

permits gay and lesbian Muslims to “wor-

ship and engage meaningfully in the com-

munity”. For Ms Uddin’s part, after con-

cluding that the hijab was “hopelessly

politicised” and hazardous to her safety, in

2006 she stopped wearing hers in public.

Peril for women wearing religious garb

is only one example of anti-Muslim dis-

crimination in America. The author also

adduces xenophobic anti-sharia laws and

resistance to Muslim buildings. After ar-

sonists targeted the site of a new Islamic

centre in Tennessee in 2010, a candidate for

Congress said that the building would

“fracture the moral and political founda-

tion” of the region; the state’s lieutenant-

governor declared Islam a “violent political

philosophy”. The mosque opened in 2012,

but five years later vandals wrapped bacon

on the door handles and scrawled “Fuck Al-

lah” on the wall.

Ms Uddin wants to forge stronger links

with opponents of Mr Trump’s restrictions

on immigration and on travel from Muslim

countries. Both Muslims andlgbtqpeo-

ple, she says, are “fighting for their civil

rights” and should “support each other’s

causes”. Nevertheless the author defends

Christian conservatives who resist laws re-

quiring businesses to serve customers of

all sexual and gender identities. As a lawyer

at Becket, a non-profit firm, Ms Uddin rep-

resented Hobby Lobby, a textile shop, when

its religious proprietors demanded an ex-

emption from the Obamacare rule that

companies must provide contraceptive

coverage for employees. Her firm also sid-

ed with a group of nuns who complained

that an accommodation releasing them

from the contraceptive mandate was itself

a violation of their conscience.

This is a fraught political stance. Ms Ud-

din wants to ally with liberals and begin a

“conversation” with conservatives. But

many on the left oppose religious exemp-

tions that impede the rights of women and

minorities, while many on the right—as

this book disturbingly documents—deny

that Islam is even worth protecting. 7

Islam in America

Taking liberties

When Islam is Not a Religion: Inside

America’s Fight for Religious Freedom. By

Asma Uddin. Pegasus Books; 336 pages;

$27.95

Keeping the faith

“K

im”, rudyard kipling’stale of an

Anglo-Irish boy’s journey through

British India (published in 1901), recalls an-

other literary odyssey. Huckleberry Finn

floats down the Mississippi river with Jim,

a runaway slave seeking his freedom. Kim

treks over the Grand Trunk Road with the

Teshoo Lama, a holy man searching for

spiritual liberation. Both defy prejudices to

help their companions, even as their au-

thors deal in ugly racial stereotypes.

As Christopher Benfey observes in “If”,

his sensitive study of Kipling’s sojourn in

America, Kim’s resemblance to Huck is not

coincidental. It was Mark Twain who first

attracted Kipling to the United States in

1889, when the young Indian-born English-

man made a pilgrimage to Elmira, New

York, to meet his literary hero. Twain was

dazzled by the unknown writer’s elo-

quence. He compared Kipling’s language to

footprints, “so strong and definite was the

impression which it left behind”.

“If”, which takes its title from Kipling’s

celebrated poem, charts the decisive influ-

ence of his time in America on his life and

writing. In 1892 he married Carrie Balestier,

the sister of his late literary agent, and the

couple settled in her home town of Brattle-

boro, Vermont. There, in a hillside house

with a view of the Connecticut river, he la-

boured “to turn himself into a specifically

Americanwriter”. Indeed, Kipling believed

that, as a perceptive foreigner devoted to

his adopted country, he alone was capable

of producing The Great American Novel.

He came close, Mr Benfey argues, with

“The Jungle Book”. Far from the forests of

Literary influences

Huck meets Kim

If: The Untold Story of Kipling’s American

Years. By Christopher Benfey. Penguin

Press; 256 pages; $28