Memories and visions of ummah: Reflections in relational solidarity

Abstract

We are four racialized diasporic Muslim women living on Turtle Island, with roots spanning India, Palestine, Panama, Trinidad, Malaysia, and beyond. We have been involved in activism and organizing, including with and for Muslim communities, for more than five decades combined. Our conversations and correspondence about Muslim pedagogies of solidarity provoked individual and collective reflection about what it means to create and sustain community. We were made in community and have made communities intentionally with others, Muslim or otherwise, who allow us to be more fully human. We are guided by Islamic teachings, as well teachings of justice and liberation rooted in different knowledge traditions. We are shaped too by the knowledge and ways of knowing offered by radical Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour engaged in the collective struggle for freedom on Turtle Island and in the wider world. As Muslims, we are called “to come to know one another” (Qur’an, 49:13, as cited in Nasr et al., 2015). We suggest that to do so requires us to confront patterns of internalized domination and internalized subordination that prevent us from being with and for one another. Such confrontation enables us to work collectively to dismantle interlocking systems of oppression that prevent us from being more fully human. In this multivocal reflective essay, we explore the relationship between community and solidarity by delving into our memories of ummah, Muslim community, our evolving understandings of ummah, and the relational solidarity that is necessary to establish ummah. A thread that weaves together our memories and visions of ummah is the ancient and futuristic practice of mothering.

Keywords:

• Community
• collective liberation
• Islam
• Muslims
• solidarity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sameena Eidoo

Sameena Eidoo is an assistant professor and teacher educator in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Through her teaching practice, she strives to enact more just and liberatory futures as though they exist in the present. Her writing has appeared in Gender and Education, Confronting racism in teacher education: Counternarratives of critical practice, LooseLeaf Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the author of Shaping Muslim Futures: Youth Visions and Activist Praxis.

May El-Abdallah

May El-Abdallah is a (non-practising) lawyer currently working in the public sector. Prior to that, she was a civil litigator. El-Abdallah is committed to community-building and has worked with organizations such as Art-reach Toronto, the South Asian Legal Clinic’s Forced Marriage Project, Maytree’s DiverseCity Fellows program, the HIV/AIDS Legal Clinic of Ontario, the Canadian Association of Muslim Women in Law, and AQSAzine. She serves on the Executive Committee of the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association.

Zahra Grant

Zahra Grant is a mother of three children, who hopes her greatest contribution to social change is the way she raises them. With a passion for women’s health, she is a governance professional for a health regulatory body. An activist and community builder at heart, Grant serves on the National Board of Directors of the Canadian Council of Muslim Woman, an organization committed to justice and equality for Muslim women in Canada.

Gilary Massa Machado

Gilary Massa Machado is a mother of three young children. With roots in labour and student movements, she is also an accomplished community leader and human rights advocate. She works as a Senior Human Rights Policy, Education & Organizational Change Specialist in the Toronto District School Board. She holds a Masters in Leadership and Community Engagement from York University. Her writing has been published in Until we are free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada.