Download Tolerance limits –

The limits of tolerance –
opportunities and problems from the Muslims’ perspective
by Bekir Alboğa
Spokesman of the Coordination Council of Muslims in Germany
Head of the Division for Intercultural and Interfaith Cooperation
at the Turkish Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB)
Brussels, 10 January 2008
Theological principles underlying the Muslim understanding of tolerance:
‘Men, We have created you from a male and a female and divided you into
nations and tribes that you might know one another. Truly, the noblest of you in
God’s sight is the most righteous of you. God is wise and all-knowing.’ (The Holy
Qur’an, 49:13)
‘Among His other signs are the creation of heaven and earth and the diversity of
your tongues and colours. Surely there are signs in this for those who reflect.’
(Qur’an 30:22)
Proclaim: ‘This is the truth from your Lord’, then whoever wills let him believe,
and whoever wills let him disbelieve. (The Holy Qu’ran, 18:29)
‘Surely, Believers [i.e. Muslims], Jews, Christians and Sabaeans – all who believe
in God and the Last Day and do what is right – will be rewarded by their Lord.
They have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve.’ (The Holy Qur’an, 2:62)
‘There shall be no compulsion [in matters of faith] in religion.’ (The Holy Qur’an,
2:256)
God’s Messenger Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) said:
An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor has a non-Arab any superiority
over an Arab; also he who is white has no superiority over him who is black nor
the one who is black over the one who is white except by piety and good action.
You are children of Adam, and Adam is from dust.
Truly, every privilege, be it [based on] blood or possessions, is abolished.
Be good to your neighbour; you will then be a believer. Wish for men what you
wish for yourself; you will then become a Muslim.
Ladies and gentlemen, as spokesman for the Coordination Council of Muslims in
Germany, I wish you, your families and all people in Europe and on earth, our common
home, God’s abundant blessing for the year 2008. In the EU’s Year of Intercultural
Dialogue we hope for your support.
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If we study carefully and without preconceptions the words I have quoted above – the
words of God from the Qur’an and those of His Prophet from the Sunnah, it is easy to
see that the concept of ‘tolerance’ is writ large in the tenets of Islam. Regrettably few
experts are aware that the Muslim faith has another name, which is al-Hanifat assamha or al-Sharia al-islamiya as-samha. This means the religion of beneficence,
consideration, forbearance, tolerance and generosity. In other words, Islam is a
magnanimous, benevolent, forgiving and bountiful religion.
In our post-September 11 age, I have to stress this fact, even if it is widely regarded as
suspect in the light of a wave of Islamophobia in Germany and in the West generally.
Particularly in this present era, characterised by global competition, insecurity and a
lack of mutual credibility, it is more important than ever to portray the essence of a
world religion in a context of tolerance. Uncertainty and fear of the West and its leading
economic, political and military superpower on the one hand and, on the other hand,
fear of extremist terrorism, which a majority of the Islamic world and of Muslims in
Europe condemn, make us duty-bound to offer an explanation – to explain the essence
of Islam and of the West – because misunderstandings and prejudices increase mutual
fears and feelings of insecurity.
God’s Messenger Muhammad preached a code of ethics that forms the ideal basis for
such reconciliation and tolerance – in the first place, though not exclusively, between
monotheists from Judaism, Christianity and Islam. For 23 years, from A.D. 610 to 632
in Mecca and Medina, he strove for the realisation of an ideal. ‘The Muslim’, he said,
‘is he from whose hand and tongue, that is to say his deeds and words, anyone shall feel
safe’. ‘All people are equal before God like the teeth of a comb.’ ‘None of you is a
believer unless you wish for your neighbour what you wish for yourself.’ He summed
up the quintessence of his message in the following words: ‘I was sent to perfect the
noble traits of character’.
That is why Muslims today, who brand any form of extremism un-Islamic, define their
religion as the path to peace, security and devotion. They experience Islam as a religion
in which people find peace with themselves, with their fellow human beings, with other
members of their faith, with people of other faiths and with the world in general by
giving themselves voluntarily to God.
In Islam, mutual tolerance among Jews, Christians and Muslims is a fundamental
concept that is theologically underpinned by the fact that Judaism, Christianity and
Islam are all monotheistic world religions which were born, in their historical
sequence, in the wider Middle East. Islam defines itself as a continuation of the
Divine revelation and has many links and much in common with other religions,
above all Judaism and Christianity.
Goethe perceptively invoked this Muslim definition of submission to God as the thread
which runs through all revealed religions when he wrote the following lines:
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Foolish, that each man, low or high,
His own opinion must extol!
If Islam trusts to God’s control,
’Tis therein we all live and die.
(Tr. from Weimar edition, 1st series, Vol. 6, p. 128)1
Consequently, both Arab Christians and Arabic translations of the Bible use the term
‘Allah’ for God. ‘Allah’ is merely the Arabic equivalent of the German word ‘Gott’. He
is the One God who revealed His message to Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.
God refers to this in the Qur’an in the following words:
‘There is guidance, and there is light, in the Torah which We have revealed. By it the
prophets who surrendered themselves to God judged the Jews, and so did the rabbis and
the divines; …’ [5:44] ‘After those prophets We sent forth Jesus, the son of Mary,
confirming the Torah already revealed, and gave him the Gospel, in which there is
guidance and light, …’ [5:46] ‘Therefore let the followers of the Gospel judge in
accordance with what God has revealed therein. …’ [5:47] ‘And to you [Muhammad]
We have revealed the Book [Qur’an] with the truth. It confirms the Scriptures which
came before it and stands as a guardian over them. […] We have ordained a law and
assigned a path for each of you. Had God pleased, He could have made you one
nation: but it is His wish to prove you by that which He has bestowed upon you. Vie
with each other in good works, for to God you shall all return, and He will declare to
you what you have disagreed about.’ [5:48]
These words of God in the Qur’an profoundly influenced the spirit of the Western
Enlightenment. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, in his ring parable Nathan der Weise,
expresses this fact in the following lines:
‘Unwarped of prejudice; let each endeavour
To vie with both his brothers in displaying
The virtue of his ring; assist its might
With gentleness, benevolence, forbearance,
With inward resignation to the godhead,
And if the virtues of the ring continue
To show themselves among your children's children,
After a thousand thousand years, appear
Before this judgment-seat--a greater one
Than I shall sit upon it, and decide.’2
Ali Bardakoğlu, head of the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs, comments as
1
After Goethe had seen Arabic manuscripts and learned of the Qur'an, he experienced a deep desire to
learn Arabic. He copied brief Arabic prayers of petition and wrote, ‘There is perhaps no language in
which intellect, word and script are so primevally intertwined’ (letter to Johann Georg Schlosser,
23 January 1815, Weimar edition, 4th series, Vol. 25, p. 165).
Goethe’s favourable attitude to Islam went far beyond any views previously published in Germany. On
24 February 1816, he published a work containing the following sentence: ‘The poet [i.e. Goethe] ...
does not seek to allay the suspicion that he himself is a mussulman’. (Weimar edition, 1st series,
Vol. 41, p. 86)
2
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan der Weise, Act 3, Scene 7. Translation by William Taylor, Cassell
& Co, 1893
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follows:
‘Another principle regarded as a guarantee of freedom of worship in Islam is
pluralism. It was not the Divine will that all mankind be gathered in a single religion.
This is aptly expressed in a verse of the Qur’an, which states that, ‘Had your Lord
pleased, all the people of the earth would have believed in Him. Would you then force
faith upon men?’ [10:99]. The fact that the Divine will sets store by the freedom of
choice of the people upon whom He freely bestows His favour is expressed as follows
in another verse: ‘Whoever wills let him believe, and whoever wills let him
disbelieve’ [18:29]. This is a clear reflection of the fact that importance is attached to
the human will and that people should be allowed to act freely with regard to their
choice of religion, which is a crucial decision.
The importance that is assigned to the individual and individual decisions in Islam is
highly significant in the context of religious freedom. The firm bond that is forged
between belief and will bolsters decisions taken with regard to religion on the basis of
free will. The fact that Muslims form a single community of faith – the umma – is not
inconsistent with the doctrine that religious responsibility lies with the individual.
People act as Muslims when they have self-assurance and grant their fellow human
beings freedom of choice on the basis of Islamic respect for the individual and his or
her preferences.
Islam is the last in the ring of heavenly religions and presents itself as the perfect
culmination of that ring, as the true faith. This assumption is a rational necessity for
any religion. Religious freedom has nothing to do with the truth or error of the tenets
of any faith. In Islam, religious freedom is not seen from the perspective of the creeds
of other faiths but is rooted in the virtue of living in peace with people who believe in
the tenets of their respective faiths. In short, religious freedom is not based on the
epistemological dimension of faith but on its social dimension. Besides, it would be
wrong to limit religious freedom to the question whether a person adheres to a
religion or not. The confines of such freedom must be seen in such a way that it
embraces non-believers too.’3
In Germany, and not only in Germany, we are experiencing a squalid dispute about
headscarves, whose wearers allegedly undermine ‘Christian values’. The Government
would truly have to intervene, if I may quote Dr Uta Ranke-Heinemann on this issue,
‘if a teacher entered the classroom wearing only a headscarf’. In this, she said, she
was following the dress rule laid down by her father when he was President of the
Federal Republic. His printed invitation cards bore the words ‘Dress discretionary but
preferred’. ‘I would draw the line at complete concealment’, she said, ‘because
disguise could make it difficult for people to live together and could generate
insecurity. What we therefore need is a more liberal outlook, which stems in part from
level-headedness. When, in talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel, Pope Benedict XVI
presses the case for the inclusion of God in the Constitution, the Government should
resist, for, by including the “God clause” in the Constitution, the European Union
would be endowing itself with a share of godliness to which it has no claim.
Moreover, it would be leaving itself open to abuse for the benefit of individual
religious communities, thereby allowing God to be misused in the service of human
3
Excerpt from a speech delivered in Berlin in September 2004
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self-seeking. In point of fact, which God is the state invoking? The one God of the
Jews or Muslims or the Christian Trinity? The constitutional concept of God is a front
for an all-too-human quest for power.’
‘The task of the state’, she continued, ‘is to guarantee that people can live together
without friction. Christians who, in the past, forced their sons and daughters into
arranged marriages or into monasteries or convents should have been punished.
Governments are more interested today in a balance of terror than in a balanced
distribution of food in the world. One example of mutual tolerance is the flowering of
Jewish, Christian and Muslim culture in Spain over several centuries. Even today we
can still admire the beauty of the Alhambra and its gardens’.
Let us please enter this European Year of Intercultural Dialogue with hope of closer
convergence and greater tolerance within Europe. Allow me to urge all forces in
politics and the media in the EU to give vigorous support to those who are committed
to dialogue within society and to do more for peaceful and conciliatory interaction
among the cultures and religions in Europe.
May I take the opportunity offered by this event to express my hope that the rise of
right-wing extremism and Islamophobia will be combated more vigorously by every
possible means.
Let me conclude by quoting Friedrich Schiller:
Hope
Much do men e’er talk and dream
Of better days to come.
Behind sweet rapture’s golden gleam
Behold them, chasing, run!
Though oft the world turn old then new,
This hope they ne’er shall lose from view.
Tr. from Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805), Hoffnung.
My own hope is for a practical step from the Church in the form of a ‘dialogue for
action’ in response to the invitation from the 138 Islamic scholars who appealed to
the whole of Christendom in October 2007 in a letter headed ‘A common word
between us and you’, in which they said that ‘Our very eternal souls are all also at stake
if we fail sincerely to make every effort to make peace and come together in harmony’.
This high-ranking group of scholars had previously wished Christians throughout the
world a happy Christmas.
In this spirit, my hope and wish for all of us is for an ever-better future in Europe for
Muslims and for all people.
Thank you for your attention.
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