Alternate History: Muslim Statue of Liberty
M. Aurangzeb Ahmad

The genesis of the State of Liberty go back to Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel’s visit to Egypt in 1855. Inspired by the State of Abu Simbel Eiffel first proposed the idea for a large statue in the form of a Egyptian peasant woman to be eracted at the entrance of the Suez Canal. While the idea was bounced around in Egypt for several years, the economy of Egypt did not permit Egypt or the British Empire to take it seriously. As luck would have it Eiffel had a chance encounter with the aging American Steel magnate Albert Crawford Westmoore in a saloon in Alexandria in 1869 where he saved the older Westmoore’s life when a brawl broke out between British and American archaeologists. In 1887 when the Eiffel Tower was built in Paris and Eiffel was getting a lot of negative publicity because of it, Westmoore happened to be in Paris offered Eiffel to finance his next big project – The State of Egypt Engligening the World. In subsequent years Eiffel moved to New York and the statue morphed into what we now recognize as the State of Liberty. Eiffel settled in Lower Manhattan where he became good friends with many people from Syria fleeing the wars in the Ottoman Empire. While most of the immigrants were Christians, there was one Muslim woman in particular that took Eiffel’s fancy – Fatima El-Nour, the woman’s whose face now adorns the State of Liberty. While they couldn’t marry because of religious and cultural differences, and the fact that Eiffel was 40 years her senior at the time of their ill-fated courtship. Fatima El-Nour did not survive for long, she caught influenza and died soon thereafter. With Westmoore’s financial backing Eiffel convinced the government of NYC to back the project which was marketed as a symbol of America’s shining light to the world and positing America as the new Egypt bringing light to the world. It was earlier thought that Eiffel traveled throughout the US mainly to raise funds for the project as Westmoore had only provided severity percent of the funds. However, when the Westmoore archives were finally made public in 2008 it was revealed that the tour of Westmoore’s idea to give people of the US a sense of ownership for the project. This is the main reason why the State of Liberty is not just the sign of America’s light to the world but also its promise of liberty and freedom. This is how a chance counter in Alexandria in British occupied Egypt, public backlash over the Eiffel Tower in Paris and a tragic love story led to the face of a Muslim woman being on a symbol of American culture.

The statue is inspired from not just Abu Simbel but Colossus of Rhodes and the base of the statue is clearly inspired from ancient Cretan architecture. The dress that lady liberty is wearing is inspired from the traditional dress of Egyptian rural woman. The headscarf that she is wearing is known as the hijab. This is one of the reasons why hijab has never become an issue in the US, despite it being controversial in Europe. In fact in the 1960s and 1970s hijab was adopted by the fashion industry in the US as another accessary. These days it is mainly Muslim American woman who wear the hijab on a daily basis but on 4th of July women everywhere in the US wear the turquoise hijab to symbolize lady liberty – a tradition which became popular during the Cold War to emphasize the Christian character of America.

Image Credit: Alternate State of Liberty sketch by Fiza Ahmad

OTL Notes:
While the State of Liberty of course did not turn out this way in OTL (our timeline), the first incarnation of the Statue of Liberty was supposed to be in Egypt overlooking the Suez Canal. In other words the first version of the Statue of Liberty was supposed to look like a Muslim woman. The Smithsonian Magazine covered this as a story a few years ago which reads like an interesting bit of history which is not that well known.

Finding a Place for a Muslimah Heroine in the Post-9/11 Marvel Universe: New X-Men’s Dust

Authors: Julie Davis & Robert Westerfelhaus

Abstract: Soon after the attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, Marvel Comics introduced Dust, an observant Sunni Muslim, as a member of the New X-Men. In this study, we point out how the focus upon her Islamic faith departs from conventional depictions of superheroes in American popular media. Additionally, we discuss how her religious beliefs and practices define her as different, and thus sets her apart, from other superheroes. We also examine how, in keeping with the American monomyth metanarrative that informs the superhero genre, Dust functions as a liminal character, one who bridges the worlds of Islam and the West. The paper concludes by noting that Dust, in common with other superheroines, is relegated to the periphery of Marvel’s narratives primarily because she is female.

Link: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2013.838370#.Vyjk7D9hDVs

Thanks to Hal Hall for the tip

1. What inspired you to become an artist?
Razwan: That’s a question as I get asked a lot. When growing up I never really thought of myself as an “Artist” in the sense of the word as used to define a career Artist. As a child, I would always be doing Art – mixing Islamic themes, particularly Arabic Calligraphy with stuff I saw around me. It just seemed natural and it didn’t bother me that I didn’t see anyone else doing the same in my neighbourhood. Slowly though, it began to dawn on me that not only is Art an expression of communication, but it is “being” itself. There’s a powerful force at work when composing Art. I think the way schools are geared today, there is little room for individualist thought and hence one’s own light is considered imperfections. It took me a long time to get over this conditioning, though I think I had a head start over others, as I was taught aspects of Islamic Calligraphy and Culture at home and had access to traditional materials used in Islamic Art. I think it’s important also to mention the living presence of Calligraphers around me. My Dad could write wonderfully and once I watched my Uncle compose such beautiful calligraphy, it seemed like magic!

Above: Ayatul Kursi as a blue planet.

2. What are the main themes or influences that inform your work?
Razwan: I must credit the contemporary Calligrapher Ahmed Moustapha for showing the world how traditional script and calligraphy can be used in exciting ways. Themes from the Muslim world are of interest to me and I am inspired by historic and contemporary Muslim interpretations of the cosmos. I find that there is a spiritual depth also in Japanese and Chinese Calligraphy. I have been posing questions regarding the Minimalist tradition in Islamic Art for a while now and I have been trying to converse with minimalism whilst composing calligraphy. Meditation and reflection is key to my calligraphy.

3. How did you come to choose science fiction settings for your work?
Razwan: Science fiction, like Islam presents an alternate cosmology. In that sense, both deal with wider questions of the cosmos. In fact when I first began to learn Arabic, I began to see the Qur’an very differently. The Qur’an startled me with its cosmological view of reality. It posits a worldview from beyond space and time. Little wonder then, why early Muslims were great Astronomers. But what is less understood, is that there is a whole plethora of science-fiction written by early Muslim writers. Currently I am restudying this, in particular Ibn Nafis (d1288) and attempting to get to grips with what he and other early Muslim Sci-Fi writers were saying. I used to read wide a range of science-fiction and fantasy as well as Islamic texts as teenager. So I have been fed quite an SF diet. Sometimes science fiction creeps in without me knowing it! In my commission for the Tour De France 2014 for example, I I wasn’t overtly thinking of a science fiction theme, though after it was complete, someone remarked that the Arabic word looked like a man on a bike from TRON!

From the air! Sunlight reflecting off the word Al-Asr morphed into a bike, I was not thinking of TRON at all in the process of creating it!

4. What kind of reactions do you usually get regarding your work?
Razwan: I get the whole range of emotions, from baffled, mildly intrigued to sheer joy! Sadly nowadays people associate Islam generally with “religious” books. However in the past, Islam had an association with general life, and that included stories, fiction and science. It’s key to remember that this wasn’t proselytising the creed of Islam but simply that Muslim thinkers and writers were living “in harmony” with it. I have been told time and time again by well-meaning friends and colleagues that I should only concentrate on one aspect of my work. That I should only write or only do Art. They feel that a person can only excel at one thing. In my view however, I believe that this is a reductionist perspective and that Muslim writers and scientists have always been polymaths.

5. You also have a book on the Dracula, can you describe the project in a bit more detail?
Razwan: Certainly. Many years ago whilst at University, a fellow Turkish student mentioned just one sentence about Count Dracula and the Ottomans (Dr Kutluk Ozguven, now a Professor at Zirve University, Turkey) and that was enough to spark my interest in researching all I could about it. The book itself is over 400 pages and there are four aspects to it. First, it is a science-fiction-cum-fantasy story based on true events where there are hidden meanings within the narrative. Secondly, there are copious references to Muslim scientists and cosmology throughout the book. I have framed the edges of the pages with sayings of Sufi Mystics and created Art (along with guest Artist Sayra Bey) to bring the story alive. Finally, the book has been designed in a way that it is kept by the reader as something they can dip into at their leisure. I wanted to create something new – Islamic writers were once pioneers, and in a similar vein, I created a new format for a novel. It took many years of research and was launched at Waterstones in UK (the largest book chain here) in 2012, on the centenary of Bram Stoker’s death.

6. What projects are you currently working on?
Razwan: I am currently working on two projects. A series of new paintings for a new exhibition that looks at the Arabic Script in a fresh way yet keeps to the tradition. I am, Allah Willing, hoping to also use Farsi and Urdu along with Arabic. The second project is a series of books about a future sci-fi Islamic “city” which is called “Islamopolis.” I’ve already written over thousand pages on this, but there is a long editing and rewriting process under way, and it could be over a year till I am happy with the first of the books!

7. What are you plans for the future?
Razwan: We make plans, but sometimes we are pushed into different areas by the One. For now, I feel like exploring the Minimalist tradition in Islamic Art, Literature and Education. We live on earth for only a short period of time and if we can leave a bit of a legacy for the next generation then it’s been worth it!

Pamela Sargent The Venus Trilogy is sometimes compared to Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy. Just like the Mars Trilogy the Venus Trilogy also spans many centuries and has the terraforming of that planet as the main theme of the book. In a manner similar to Robinson’s trilogy there are also Muslim character’s in Pamela’s book as well. Here is a description of the series from ereads.

Venus of Dreams introduces Iris Angharads, a determined, independent woman who has set herself one seemingly unattainable goal: to make the poison-filled atmosphere of Venus hospitable to humans. She has worked day and night to realize her dream with only one person sharing her passion, Liang Chen. It seemed impossible to make Venus, with its intolerable air and waterless environment, into a paradise, but Iris succeeds. And in doing so, she creats a powerful dynasty beginning with her first born Benzi.

In Venus of Shadows, the Venus Project calls upon the strongest and most courageous to create a prosperous world in the dismal wilderness of Venus. Those who demonstrate the skill and the passion to embark on this adventure must transform the barren planet in the midst of political and cultural unrest. When Benzi and his sister Risa find themselves in opposing forces on the battlefield, their love and perseverance will determine the destiny of the new land.

In Child of Venus the terraforming has been going on for centuries. It will be many more years before the planet’s surface has been rendered fully habitable and its human settlers can leave their protective domes. But there are those who are foolishly unwilling to wait. In a colony still ravaged by the after-effects of a battle between two religious cults that divided families and created civil war, Mahala Liangharad, a true child of Venus, conceived from the genetic material of the rebels and brought to birth only after their deaths, is a beacon of hope.

Sargent builds imaginatively-detailed new worlds of breathtaking wonder and shows that however far humanity may travel it will overcome any challenge.

The Book of Madness is a collection of short stories by Levent Şenyürek. Most of the stories have a grand premise ranging from the Soviets making contact with the aliens at the 1908 Tugunska event to machines that can make everything including universes. The collection also includes a self-referential story about a science fiction writer trying to write the last story in a sci-fi collection. A more comprehensive review of the collection is available on the following link.

The creator of the “X-Men” series and “All Star Batman and Robin,” Jim Lee was recently in Egypt celebrating his wedding anniversary with his wife. Lee also hinted that he might be working on the acclaimed Muslim comic “The 99” in the future.

There are, of course, many fantastic motifs in medieval Arabic literature, as in the collection of stories of various genres Alf layla wa layla [“One Thousand and One Nights”] (standard text 15th century; trans by Sir Richard Burton as The Arabian Nights, 16 vols, 1885-8). In this, the stories of The City of Brass and The Ebony Horse could be regarded as PROTO SCIENCE FICTION. A few UTOPIAS were written too, including al-Farabi’s Risala fi mabadi’ ara’ ahl al-madina al-fadila (first half of 10th century; trans by Richard Walzer as Al-Farabi on the Perfect State 1985). The first real sf stories were published in the late 1940s by the famous mainstream Egyptian writer Tawfiq Al-HAKIM, but are not considered genre sf by Arabic critics, who nominate Mustafa MAHMUD (often transcribed Mahmoud) as the “Father of Arabic sf”. Both of these authors have been translated into English. Although there have been a lot of sf stories published in Arabic since the 1960s, few authors could be described as sf specialists. Among them, the most important is probably Imran Talib, a Syrian, author of seven sf novels and short-story collections to date. The most interesting of these are the three collections, Kawkab al-ahlam [“Planet of Dreams”] (coll 1978), Laysa fi al-qamar fuqara’ [“There are No Poor on the Moon”] (coll 1983) and Asrar min madina al-hukma [“Secrets of the Town of Wisdom”] (coll 1988), and the novel Khalfa hajiz az-zaman [“Beyond the Barrier of Time”] (1985). Talib is also the author of the sole theoretical study of sf in Arabic: Fi al-khayal al-ilmi [“About Science Fiction”] (1980). Sf is written in practically all Arab countries. In Libya, for example, Yusuf al-Kuwayri has published the novel Min mudhakkirat rajul lam yulad [“From the Diary of a Man Not Yet Born”] (1971), which gives an optimistic view of life in Libya in the 32nd century. Mysterious ALIENS affect the life and work of the hero, a Palestinian living in the occupied territories, in Palestinian Amil Habibi’s popular mainstream sf novel Al-waqa’ al-ghariba fi ikhtifa’ Said Abu an-Nahs al-Mutasha’il (1974; trans as The Secret Life of Saeed, the Ill-Fated Pessoptimist: A Palestinian who Became a Citizen of Israel 1982). Various other mainstream writers have written occasional sf stories, as in Qisas [“Short Stories”] (coll) by the Syrian Walid Ikhlasi and Khurafat [“Legends”] (coll 1968) by the Tunisian Izzaddin al-Madani. The Algerian Hacene Farouk Zehar, who writes in French, has published Peloton de tete [“Top Platoon”] (coll 1966). The role of drama in the Arab world is more important than in the West, and plays are very often published; some are of sf interest. The famous Egyptian dramatist Yusuf Idris wrote Al-jins ath-thalith [“The Third Sex”] (1971), in which the protagonist, a scientist called Adam, attempts to discover the enzymes of life and death and travels to the Fantastic World. Another Egyptian, Ali Salim, a satirist who writes in colloquial Arabic, has written several sf plays. In En-nas elli fi es-sama’ et-tamna [“People from the Eighth Heaven”] (1965) a protagonist called Dr Mideo struggles against the bureaucratic Academy of Sciences of the Universe. Fantastic discoveries and excavations are the main topic of Ali Salim’s other sf plays, Barrima aw bi’r el-qamh [“Brace, or the Well of Wheat”] (1968), Er-ragel elli dihik el-mala’ika [“A Man who Laughed at Angels”] (1968) and Afarit Masr el-gadida [“Satan from Heliopolis”] (1972). [JO]

The following description from the Publishers Weekly:

In “alien contact” science fiction, the aliens come from far off, light-years away. But what if the aliens were closer to home? What if the next great life-form with which we must contend isn’t from the stars but from our hard drives? In Zettel’s second novel (after Reclamation), Katmer Al Shei, owner and engineer of the starship Pasadena, and her crew become pawns in an elaborate scheme to bring human beings and artificially intelligent life-forms into deadly conflict. But the real protagonist ends up being Evelyn Dobbs, the ship’s Fool, who, hired to amuse the crew for its long voyage, finds herself trying to contain the threat of war. The influence of Asimov’s robot stories and C.J. Cherryh’s elaborate, sophisticated spaceship adventures are both evident here. But while Zettel’s skills as a teacher of technical writing are very handy when it comes to computer terminology, her human characters are less well developed. Still, Zettel’s story has a lively pace and gains more than enough momentum to keep readers from noticing the time. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.