Rashid Dar (Dragoman)

Independent policy analyst/advisor. Istanbul-based. Currently in Kuala Lumpur for a bit. My old pseudonym was Dragoman. Formerly: @BrookingsInst @templeton_fdn

[Rashid Dar (Dragoman) @_rashiddar]

For over three years now, I wrote under a pseudonym. It bought me mischief and catharsis.

But that season has passed, it's time to hang up the mask. You can read about the reasons why I am no longer anon at the link in my bio.

My name is Rashid Dar, and I am/was Dragoman.

[ًً @kelevitch]

The debate over why Western Islamic da’wah is failing, Salafi rigidity versus Sufi romanticism, method versus method is itself the symptom it’s trying to diagnose.

A healthy civilisation in genuine progress doesn’t produce these arguments. It’s too busy building, transmitting, governing. The argument about whose method is better emerges precisely when the shared forward project has collapsed and factions are left fighting over the narrative of a shrinking enterprise.

The colonisable man precedes colonisation. Interior fragmentation comes first the loss of a shared civilisational purpose, the retreat into identity performance and ritual signaling. External decline is downstream of that.

The great da’is of history weren’t effective because of their school of thought. They succeeded because they had no horizontal audience to perform for. Their accountability was vertical. They weren’t managing reputations inside approval loops that punish honesty and reward boundary enforcement.

That interior condition is what’s actually absent. And the reason we can’t see it clearly is that we’re using the argument about method to avoid confronting it. Every faction saying “we would be winning if it weren’t for them” is a civilisation that has already lost something far more fundamental than a da’wah strategy.

The question is/was never Sufi or Salafi. It was always: what kind of human being are you producing and what are the conditions that make that human being possible?

إن الله لا يغير ما بقوم حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم

[Rashid Dar (Dragoman) @_rashiddar]

@ACompromised I don't think so.

[Rashid Dar (Dragoman) @_rashiddar]

I'm pretty sure I'm shadowbanned. Like or comment if you can see this.

[Rashid Dar (Dragoman) @_rashiddar]

@useit651 i know. But most people don't. They'll follow him because of a viral tweet

[Rashid Dar (Dragoman) @_rashiddar]

@WinglessCrawl Yes. He is khatmal rafzi.

[Rashid Dar (Dragoman) @_rashiddar]

@abdi_hb Maybe I should post more. I've been doing the sigma grindset bullshit. But need my outlet again I think.

[Rashid Dar (Dragoman) @_rashiddar]

This is an obviously fabricated document that no one should ever take seriously, and it's sad when people do

[л @yetoshi24]

The Covenant of the Prophet Muhammad(s.a.w) with the Monks on Mount Sinai preserved by Saint Catherine's Monastery.

[Rashid Dar (Dragoman) @_rashiddar]

@islamicslaave check DM

[Tameqqrant @tizemtmarxism]

this has long been in plain sight. it recedes only because recognizing it would mean relinquishing the sentimental liberal mythology of “sex work” and reckoning with 1) prostitution as a criminal machine that turns women and children into industrial-grade rape products and 2) the role this worldwide industry plays as a guarantor in the US-israel imperialist nexus.

[Huzaifa @LordHuzaifaa]

Eating grass and building nukes was clearly a better idea than having gold plated steaks and dubai chocolates.

[Azad Essa @azadessa]

This aged well.

[Curse @encoresalad]

The purpose of the Holocaust is to make every act of Jewish aggression appear as an act of self-defense.

[Rashid Dar (Dragoman) @_rashiddar]

If you're a great pattern recognizer, the world these days feels like Secret Invasion. Every other person is turning out to actually have been a Skrull the whole time.

Except instead of shapeshifting aliens we got changed birth names and rhinoplasties.

[Rashid Dar (Dragoman) @_rashiddar]

There are secularists of course. But it almost always is forced down the throat of society by a dictator. And for every rave MBS sponsors, he's investing billions into Hajj/Umrah infrastructure as well. Secular and religious money.

But obv UK salafees dawahboys etc are trash lol

[Rashid Dar (Dragoman) @_rashiddar]

There is this persistent belief among western observers of Muslim societies that they must deep down hate Islam. But sure, keep nostalgiapoasting b&w pics of miniskirts in Tehran and Kabul. It totally isn't standard fare elite degeneracy.

[Adam Wren @aswren]

Talking to international students during my MA I was pretty shocked by how secular they said their generation are, it’s happening even in places like Egypt.

We’re going to end up in this weird position where Islam is a more potent political force in the UK than it is in Iran

[Rashid Dar (Dragoman) @_rashiddar]

Hello MT. I'm in London the next few days. Anyone around?

[Rashid Dar (Dragoman) @_rashiddar]

@Interlocutor_1 https://t.co/AK7hBvgLXL

[Rashid Dar (Dragoman) @_rashiddar]

https://t.co/A6oldBqfrk

[Rashid Dar (Dragoman) @_rashiddar]

New article, this time an excerpt from a book project I've been working on. Link in reply to this tweet.