Ahmed 1

Razan Ahmed
8/14/17
AMST101
Instructor Anthony

Digging Deeper into Islam: Material Culture & Social Constructs

When many people hear Islam, they immediately associate it with ISIS or the strict sharia

law that they hear about on public television. The media chooses what it portrays whether it is

accurate or not. Being a Muslim American is not always easy because of the pre mindset that

many people have about Islam, some individuals are just ignorant while others are just not

aware. For example, some individuals say mean remarks like calling all Muslims terrorists. That

is considered tokenism because they are attributing the actions of radical Muslims and assuming

that all Muslims are like them. Many Muslims feel that it is their responsibility to defend Islam

because it is a peaceful religion that some people do not understand. In this research paper I plan

to focus on the material culture of Islam. I will be analyzing symbolic items such as the prayer

rug, and cultural procedures like the application of henna. I will also mention orientalism and

cultural appropriation regarding Muslim cultural traditions in the United States. My objects of

analysis will allow me to study the ways in which Muslim/Islamic culture attributes to the

culture of Muslim Americans. There fore Islamic material culture allows us to deepen our

understanding of Muslim American culture.

Culture is made up of many components, like food, customs/behaviors, traditions and

rituals, it is an individual and communal way of life as defined by George Yudice in Culture.

John Caughey also explains culture as systems of meaning that allow us to make sense of the

world
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out there. And that cultures enable and constrain us in our attempts to understand who we are

( Chapter 3. Individual Identities, Multiple Cultures). Caughey views culture as being dependent

on social locations, traditions, obligations, roles, values, and rituals. Prayer takes on the form of a

tradition, obligation, role and ritual that Muslims perform. Nations and countries from all over

the globe have different cultures and traditions.

In the United States a lot of cultures from other countries/nations are culturally

appropriated. Cultural appropriation is the adoption or use of elements of one culture by

members of a different culture, defined by Wikipedia. An example of cultural appropriation is

when white people use henna as temporary tattoos on absurd places on their bodies. A term that

stems from cultural appropriation is orientalism, which is the imitation/depiction of aspects from

Middle Eastern, South Asian, and East Asian cultures. The henna example given earlier also

applies to orientalism.

Prayer rugs are an important religious/cultural item in Islam. Salah (prayer) is one of the

forms of religious practice that Muslims perform five times a day. Not only is Salah seen by

many religious Muslims as the most important of the ritual obligations but, together with the

Muslim headscarf, it is also the most visible and perhaps most provocative aspect of everyday

Muslim religious practice, Heiko Henkel claims in Between Belief and Unbelief Lies the

Performance of Salat: Meaning and Efficacy of A Muslim Ritual. Prayer rugs/mats are pieces

of fabric or carpet that Muslims place between the ground and themselves for cleanliness during

the various positions of Islamic prayer.

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Prayer rugs come in all different sizes, material, and colors. Almost all prayer rugs

however have one thing in common, which is the mihrab or the arch designs that are found in

mosques that indicate the direction of the qibla ( direction of the Kabah in Makkah). The design

of prayer mats depends on the village/town it is from and the weaver. All prayer rugs no matter

what size, are always rectangular. There are smaller prayer rugs for kids, larger ones for adults,

and wider mats so that multiple people can pray on it simultaneously. Prayer mats hold an

important symbolic meaning in Islam, they are taken care of well and sometimes kept for

hundreds of years. There are certain ways in which you are supposed to handle prayer rugs, for

example it is considered disrespectful to place a mat in a dirty area or to throw it around

carelessly.

Being an American Muslim, who prays five times a day, I use my prayer rug on a daily

basis. My prayer rug was made in Turkey, and it is yellow with black and blue designs (see

Appendix A, figure A). Once I finish praying I fold my prayer rug up and set it aside on a shelf

until I use it again for the next prayer. Praying is a part of my everyday life. Caughey mentions

in The Ethnography of Everyday Life: Theories and Methods for American Culture Studies,

that the everyday life is how we live our lives on a daily basis, our usual routine and the

experiences we face. Since most Muslims pray on a daily basis, it becomes an aspect of their

everyday life.

Prayer as mentioned earlier is a very important ritual in Islam, there are several benefits

to performing daily prayers, both mentally and physically. Prayer in a Muslim context provides

families and individuals with a daily pattern that often integrates and unifies the family (Trevan
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Hatch et al.). In their book, Koenig and Shohaib (2014) found various amounts of benefits tied to

Islamic societies. Areas that were focused on were positive emotions and mental, social,

behavioral, and physical health and well-being (Koenig & Shohaib, 2014). The authors provided

research studies and evidence about the benefits that are connected to health and well-being in

Islamic communities. While exploring positive emotions that are connected to the practice of

Islam the authors recognized increases in optimism, hope, self-esteem, meaning and purpose, and

self-control (Koenig & Shohaib, 2014).

Henna (see Appendix A, figure B) has distinctive cultural roots and meanings,

specifically in societies where it has been used for a thousand years or more. Henna is a dye that

is made from a henna tree known as Lawsonia inermis, which thrives in arid climates. Saudi

Arabia, Iran, Sri Lanka, India, Egypt and the Sudan are its major producers. Henna is also

referred to as the temporary body art that women design on their hands and feet (Carrie Griffin.)

Henna is usually performed in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, East Africa, and South Asia

by Muslims and non Muslims. Henna can be used to dye hair, nails, skin, and different types of

fabrics. There are different types of henna, the natural henna powder, red henna, black henna,

and the more modern white henna. Elderly women with white or gray hair tend to dye their hair

with henna. Henna on the hands and feet are usually done for weddings or celebratory events.

Recently, henna tattooing has become trendy in mainstream American and European settings,

this positioning may alters the process of its original significance. Individuals without any roots

in the mehndi tradition may find its symbols and designs beautiful, and decide to experience the

process themselves. Many white people in the United States experiment with henna as temporary
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tattoos on weird areas, such as their stomachs, backs, and necks. They are also creating

temporary tattoos that imitate the deigns of henna and selling them in stores. This is another

example of orientalism, because White Americans are imitating or taking aspects of Asian and

African culture and using it to make a profit for themselves.

The concept of orientalism can be connected to the term gentrification from the

documentary Chocolate City and Pulidos text Rethinking Environmental Racism: White

Privilege and Urban Development in Southern California. Pulido mentions the idea of White

privilege, which is the fact that white people have benefits and advantages over non-whites in the

Western world. Similarly to orientalism, white people/westerners depict and imitate aspects of

cultures around the world and utilizing it for their benefits. This idea can also be tied to the

Chocolate City documentary, where the lower income, people of color families were told to

leave their homes/communities. The families were told to leave their communities so that they

could rebuild and beautify (gentrify) the homes for upper class predominantly white families that

would want to move in. This is seen as a form on injustice to many, if they were to supply better

housing for those that were kicked out of their homes than it would not be such an issue. In the

long run whether it is orientalism or gentrification, it is always about the money and how one can

improve their class or income rather than focusing on the welfare of the general public.

Higher power tends to have certain authorities over those with less power. In this case

white Americans feel superior over people of color and immigrants, so they feel it is alright to do

things like orientalism or cultural appropriation. There are social constructions about Islam and

Muslims, such as Islamophobia. Islamophobia is a social construct because people are prejudice

against Muslims and Islam. The reason why people have this prejudice is because of what they
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think they know or what they assume from the media and other social outlets. In Celebrating

Orientalism, Said complained about the increasing Western focus on Islam as a danger: "both

the electronic and print media have been awash with demeaning stereotypes that lump together

Islam and terrorism, or Arabs and violence, or the Orient and tyranny." One of the themes of

American Studies is social change. Social change is something we are trying to achieve when it

comes to the perception of Islam. There needs to be change in the way some people perceive

Muslims/Islam and how they approach them negatively. Islam is one of the many identities for

over 1.6 billion people around the globe. Therefore we can not condemn all 1.6 billion Muslims

and label them as terrorists or create negative stereotypes and constructs regarding them.

I believe that it is up to us Muslims to provide the correct information and facts about our

religion to defy against the social constructions that have been created for us. The purpose of this

paper was to delve into the innocent lives of Muslims and to prove that they are not terrorists.

Muslims are also victims of the terror attacks that groups like ISIS may perform. Muslims live

normal lives and perform peaceful religious tasks like praying five times a day. Within Islamic

material culture there are various ways of celebrating, such as applying henna on women/girls

for weddings or parties.

In conclusion, looking into the everyday life and behaviors of Muslims has allowed us to

be more aware of their cultures. I am a Muslim woman that wears the hijab on a daily basis,

when people see me they immediately know I am Muslim. I am proud to be Muslim and I take

pride in representing my religion everyday by wearing the hijab. However sometimes I am afraid

of how people may approach me because of all the negativity they have been exposed to about us
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in the media. Therefore I take it upon myself to make sure I am representing Islam appropriately,

and I do my best not to assume or judge people based on their appearances because I know how

misguided that can be.

Appendix A:

Figure A: My prayer rug

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Figure B: Henna Design

Works Cited

Basas, Carrie Griffin, Henna Tattooing: Cultural Tradition Meets Regulation (2007). Food and

Drug Law Journal, Vol. 62, p. 779, 2007; University of Tulsa Legal Studies Research

Paper No. 2009-01. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1337062

Caughey, John. The Ethnography of Everyday Life: Theories and Methods for

American Culture Studies. The John Hopkins University Press, vol. 34, no.3, Aug.

2008

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Fernndez, Melissa (2008) Book review: chocolate city: documentary film. Graduate Journal of
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Hatch, Trevan, et al. Prayer in Muslim Families: A Qualitative Exploration. Journal of

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