An amazing piece of reporting in The National about the Qubeisiat, a secretive women's movement inside Islamic fundamentalism that has gained a foothold in secular Syria and is convincing young women to put on the hijab. Author Rhonda Roumani is an Arab-American who has written for many U.S. publications and is an Alicia Patterson fellow in journalism. Her narrative point of view here is beautifully-rendered and will confuse anyone making generalizations about Arab discourse. Note that the Abu Dhabi newspaper piece speaks openly of Syrian "state security service" monitoring. And the reporting suggests that Islam is full of spiritual/doctrinal movements as much as Judaism is… These women's mystical stuff reminds me of Hasidim…
“Killing the soul is forbidden,” she continues, “but killing the
essence and the goals of the soul is like killing the soul. And that is
what America is doing. I spoke to a woman who came from America. I
asked her, ‘what do people live for in America?’ She said ‘pleasure and
money.’ I asked, ‘what is the purpose of the state?’ She said, ‘money
and power.’ They are imposing secularism and secularism means imposing
globalism by force.”
essence and the goals of the soul is like killing the soul. And that is
what America is doing. I spoke to a woman who came from America. I
asked her, ‘what do people live for in America?’ She said ‘pleasure and
money.’ I asked, ‘what is the purpose of the state?’ She said, ‘money
and power.’ They are imposing secularism and secularism means imposing
globalism by force.”
