Download The Islamic States, the Islamic Religion and the Globalized World

The Islamic States, the Islamic Religion and the Globalized World
Yvona Šabacká, University of Ecnomics in Prague, Centre of International Studies of Jan
Masaryk, May 2002
Nowadays we always talk about the process of the globalization, about the global
problems and the necessity of their solution at a planetary leve. The world is composed of
many states of regions, which arise alongside each other, penetrate of differ from eacn other
by their social and cultural virtues. According to the Harvard political analyst, Samuel P.
Huntington and his well-known study, „The Clash of Civilizations“, the world has actually
entered a new time period of the clash of civilizations. Now we refer to seven or eight
civilizations, Western, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Indian, Slavonic-Orthodox, Latin
American and also African. We talk about the cutlural differences.
In this lecture I would like to intend the role of the Islamic states and the Islamic
religion in the actual globalized world, to refer to the value paradigma of the Islamic
civilization. Precisely, the knowledge of the value paradigma of each culture, which is defined
as the systém of the basic values or virtues, has a major importance for international
negotiations or relations, diplomacy and also for the solution of international problems and
situations.
Nowadays Islam represents rather a menace than an appeal for the Western world. I
would like to controvert or to moderate this opinion by using the value paradigma or by
describing a few basic social and cultural values and by that to introduce the Islamic
civilization. Since the description of the value paradigma would be very involved and timeconsuming, I would mention just a few basic values in brief.
The Islamic civilization by its area, number of inhabitants, religion, culture, thinking
has had and still acquires a growing importance. The Islamic civilization which began to
develop in the seventh century under the influenc of prophet Muhammed is based rather on a
collective approach than an individualistic one. It was always a culture open to surrounding
cultures and to the penetration of other cultural elements in the arts, literature, architecture…It
was also a culture in which the new elements were not only absorbed but also the Islamic
virtues transmetted. The Islamic culture, if you like, the Arabic culture, penetrated into the
surrounding areas, mostly into Europe.
Before I begin thinking about the Islamic culture, I would like to mention the period
called dzahilia (ignorance) which preceded the origin or birth of Islamic culture and which
was described by the social and religious division among the Arabic nation. The main social
values were male generossity, hospitality, the offering of asylum, respect for property and the
sancity of treaties. The only common element of unity then was the Arab language, which had
many dialects. The polytheistic religion when people adored, worshipped the astral divinity
and personalized the forces of nature and natural phenomena, began to absorbed the elements
of Judaism and Christianity. A monotheistic belief was based which Muhammed continued to
work on and develop.
Muhammed, the founder of Islam, became not only the religious but also the political
and military leader of the Islamic community called umma. He made some changes in the
position of his people, limited the position of Islam toward Christiniaty and Judaism. He dealt
as the representative of the Revalation of God because the Muslim holy writing – the Koran
was revealed to Muhammed in Arabic by the Archangel Gabriel.
We can say that the Koran (in Arabic al Quar´an, from the verb to read) is the main
element of Islam and of the Islamic civilization at all. By this holy Book the civilization and
everything else have developped and still develope. Many Muslim states call the Koran the
only source of legislation. Some fundamentalist movements call it the only source of the
Constitution. The Koran consists of 6 616 verses, 77 934 words and 323 671 letters. These
exact numbers mean that in the Koran letters cannot be removed, changed nor added. Up to
this day many people learn the original version of the Koran by heart. Even if the Koran has
been translated into many languages only the Arabic version has full value or is completely
authentic in Islam.
The basic pillars of the Islamic religion written in the Koran are Shahada – The creed,
Salat – prayer, Zakat – alms, Sijam – the fast during Ramadan and Hadj – the pelgrimage to
Mecca. Another very taken elements of Islam but not binding are the circumcision (chitan) or
the fight against the non-believers (dzihad). The Koran forbids the consumption of alcoholic,
eating of pork…The penal law is very severe in Islam.
Next to the Koran as the revealed Word of God, tradition has an important position in
Islam – the Sunna which is the complex of the stories and newx about Muhammed´s life, his
habits, his verdicts reserved in Hadith (news, dialogue). Now there are some tendencies to
return to only the Koran and to purify Islam from the tradition. Most of Muslim society,
mostly Sunni Muslims, consider the Koran as the Word of God and the Sunna as
complementing the Koran.
In the Islamic geopolitical world there is a close relation between the the state and the
religion, which is considered as the ideal. This specific was established by Muhammed
because he dealt as the political as the religious leader. Islam, unlike Western culture, does
not differentiate between secular and spiritual power. The existence of the state is understood
as the second product of Islam. The role of the Islamic state and the politicians is to ensure
Islamic religious order in practical matters.
Islamic law, called Sharia, comes from the Koran and the Sunna. Sharia is the
invariable, constant complex of laws, the order given by God which can be thought of only by
men of letters called Ulama and jurists called Fuqaha. The only legislator in the Islamic state
is God and the Sharia. Now we can see some different opinions on the interpretation of the
Sharia. Some of them, mostly in the European Muslim centres, talk about the necessity of the
flexibility of Islamic law. In the traditional Islam, the Sharia as the complex of rules was
obligatory only for believers of Islam. Under the influence of Western juridical systems
Islamic radicalists adopted the territorial principles as the basis of the Islamic juridical systém.
The politician has to supervise the exercise of the Sharia in all domains of life. Sovereignty
belongs only to God.
Another specific question in the Islamic civilization is the concept of democracy, the
constitution and human rights.
The juridical institution of the Constitution was accepted from the West by most of the
Muslim states. The Constitution is rejected by Libya and Saudi Arabia. Both states consider
as directive the public congress and the spiritual authority of the ruler.
To meet the democracy in the Islamic world is nearly impossible. The exception is
Lebanon, which was founded in 1943 on democratic principles, in the concrete on the nonwritten treaty about the distribution of power between the different confessions. According to
S. Huntington three waves of the process of democratization have gradually been coming to
the Orient. The first began after the French Revolution, the second after World War II and the
third one is now. In general, we can say that most of the Muslim states accepted the
constitution and the systém of an elected parliament. But freedom of speech and of the vote
often remain limited.
Concerning human rights and human dignity, here the Koran does not differ from the
Christian interpretation. The Koran says forbids any compulsion in religion and admits the
right of choice. In 1981, the Islamic European Council in Paris declared the General Islamic
Declaration of the Human Rights which talks about the rights of life, freedom, equality, the
right of asylum, the freedom of religion, of thought and communication, meeting and so on.
This Declaration issues from the opinion that most of the rights and obligations coming from
the UN General Declaration are in accordance with the Muslim law of Sharia. But the main
problem is still the question of full religious freedom, the equality of the relations to other
religions, the equality of the position of women and public punishment. For example Saudi
Arabia as the only Muslim state on its territory does not permit non-Islamic religious worship.
In spite of the fact that all Muslim states do not recognize this Declaration, the announcement
of the Declaration was an important point in the evolution of Islam and its order.
Another value is Jihad, which is interpreted in the Euro-American world as the Holy
War. This interpretation is not exact according to Muslim and Western Orientalists. The word
of Jihad (Muhammed did not precise this word) can be interpreted as the effort of developing,
spreading and consolidating of Islam. The Jihad, as one of the collective obligations in the
Sharia and added to the five basic pillars of Islam, has four forms: by heart, by
mouth/language, by hand and by sword. So the Western interpretation of Jihad as a Holy Was
is consistent with the fourth form.
The classical Islamic law divides the world into two parts. The first is the territory of
Islam – Dar al-Islam and the second is the territory under the leadership of nonMuslim/unbelievers reffered to as the militant territory – Dar al-harb. The law obliges the
keeping of the Jihad on this territory with the aim of making it Islamic. But the Islamic law
admits the third territorial conception – the territory of the peace treaties – Dar al-sulh which
is active now. This third conception is temporary and it is supposed constantly to spread Dar
al-Islam and the Sharia. Muslim in this territory live in the position of a minority, do not
govern but they can live there according to their Islamic religion. Nowaday the Muslim world
rejects the association of the Jihad with the Holy War. The Jihad became very popular with
the development of the Islamic fundamentalism and mainly in its militant form.
The specific question, which does not belong to the basic values of the Islamic
civilization, is the Islamic fundamentalism. It is a term of recent use. Only in 1994 the
Encyclopaedia Britannica, as one of the leading encyclopedies, mention the definition of
Islamic fundamentalism. It is interesting that in origin the word fundamentalism appeared at
the beginning of the 20th century in the U.S.A. in the Protestant movements, which did not
agree mostly with modernism, they rejected Darwin´s theory of evolution, Biblical critism
and they demanded the exact practice and use of the Bible. Islamic fundamentalism as the
rejected position of modernism and postmodernism is the version of the modern reality of the
world, the product of the global world and the negative part of Islam with whom it should not
be associated. Because of its rejection of new opinions and values, fundamentalism is
excluded from Islam and Islamic culture and its open approach.
In Islamic fundamentalism we can differentiate several currents of thought. For
example, some of them accept modern science and technology, recognize its practical value,
but in principle they reject the Euro-American civilization. They do not accept its
anthropocentric vision of the world, the importance of the individual and his autonomy.
What to say to conclude. The aim of Islamic order is not to imitate the West and its
culture in territorial expansion but to try to change the direction of the evolution of the Islamic
community, to make the effort to return to the Islamic language, the manner of living with the
Koran as the moral guarantor. Nowadays the process of the Islamization of science with a
theocentric view of nature, the individual and the community as well is quickly becoming
widespread. The aims of Islamic movements are to protect their own cultural heritage and
ethic values against the global influence of the Western culture. It is a question if all these
expressions of Islamization must be considered as the elements of fundamentalism. The effort
to conserve their own cultural heritage, to develop their own critical reflection, to associate
oneself with Muslim identity by the manner of living are not the elements of fundamentalism.
If all these elements adn expressions are added to by tolerance and respect for other people,
there is no doubt about putting such a culture into the plurality of postmodernism.
The role of the Islamic states in the world, in the processo of globalization and mainly
in the regional relations will certainly be very significant. For example the initiative of the
Arab states in the solution of the Isreali-Arab conflict, the co-operation of the Mediterranean
with the European Union and the effort to create the Euro-.Meditarranean partnership of the
free market zone in 2010.
Islam cannot be associated with Islamic fundamentalism. Islam and its main currents
are not against the West. The Christian and Islamic civilizations have many common
elements. Most of the Islamic societies make the effort toward some reforms, they are
interested in social work, educational and healt systems. In Islam they call for the recognition
of Muslims as our fellows, to differentiate Islam from Islamic extremists. Muslim
governments should develop democratic institutions and human rights.