Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, born Mark Hanson, is a white American man who converted to Islam and rose to national prominence within the US Muslim community. Hamza Yusuf and his story demonstrates how authority within American Muslim communities is shaped  by gender and race privilege. After a near-death car accident and discovering an English translation of the Quran, Hamza Yusuf traveled to Islamic intellectual centers, where he quickly became known as a prodigy. Through his studies overseas - particularly in Mauritania- , Hamza Yusuf embraced, and then popularized, the idea of “Islamic East as Archive,” defined by Zareena Grewal in her book “Islam is a Foreign Country,” as the importance of studying Islam in the Islamic East to gain “traditional” knowledge. Hamza Yusuf’s own studies in the “Islamic East” gave him authority as an Islamic leader.

    Hamza Yusuf is a popular and gifted orator, and is regularly invited to speak to thousands of people as a leading public intellectual for Muslims, where he has inspired younger Muslims to study overseas. He is known for his flawless Arabic and recitation of Arabic scripture, his knowledge of Western philosophy and classical Islamic sciences, and how easily accessible his talks are. However, his identity as a white American man has validated the internalized white supremacy of post-colonial immigrants. These Muslim immigrants, identifying whiteness as holding power, want to be close to it - seeking proximity to whiteness as opposed to rejecting an oppressive structure.  Hamza Yusuf is a prominent leader that people aspire to be. As a white man with authority in the Muslim American community, his role as a figurehead rationalizes the desire for whiteness alongside the desire for authority. This has led to fetishization of Hamza Yusuf, which he condemns.  However, Hamza Yusuf has a platform as a Muslim leader that he has used to express outrage at other Muslims who do not know their religious heritage, as well as to propagate Orientalist tropes and post 9/11 “Good Muslim” and “Bad Muslim” sentiment. These actions are complicated by his white identity, because these ideologies he perpetuates are Islamophobic and shaped by white supremacy.

    It is important to note the influence of societal structures on perceived authority and acceptance into the Muslim community, because these societal structures have been shaped by white supremacy and the patriarchy. In particular, with Hamza Yusuf being a white man, he has not only had acceptance, but is given a vast amount of authority, drawing in thousands, and being named as having influenced many young Muslims. While he does have the traditional knowledge of Islam, and proximity to the “Islamic East,” his whiteness should not be dismissed – it is one thing to “condemns” those that fetishize his whiteness, but another to take active steps to undo white supremacy within the Muslim community, particularly as someone with privilege and a platform. While Hamza Yusuf’s influence on Islam is undeniable, it is clear that his whiteness also lends him authority that other more marginalized identities within Islam do not have the privilege to possess.

 

Sources:

 

Islam Is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority by Zareena Grewal

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Report: Mainstream Media Coverage Is Leading Muslims to Internalize Islamophobia