Download The Ecumenical Imperative, The Challenge of Islam

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THE ECUMENICAL IMPERATIVE
THE CHALLENGE OF ISLªM
Edward Hulmes
www.edwardhulmes.co.uk
email [email protected]
In any community of people there are responsibilities as well as rights
attached to the privileges of citizenship.
Without the former, the latter
do not exist. I have not yet come across what some call ‘a multi-cultural
society’, except in a most superficial sense. I do not see a multi-cultural
society in Britain, in Europe, in Africa, or even in the United States,
which is often described in terms of its pluralism and multi-culturalism.
American coins bear the motto e pluribus unum, ‘out of the many, one’,
but not even the USA is the melting–pot for citizens and immigrants that
it may once have been.
The term ‘multicultural society’ expresses a
commendable aspiration for reconciliation and the tolerance of diversity,
but it does not describe an empirical reality.
This is not surprising
because the phrase is a contradiction I terms.
Over the years I have written and published several pieces about the
incoherence of multiculturalism. It does not follow that a collocation of
individuals (or of discrete ethnic groups) from widely different cultural
backgrounds can be correctly described as a 'multicultural’ or ‘pluralist’
society in anything other than a superficial sense. Britain may be multiracial, multi-ethnic, multi-faith, demographically speaking, but without
commonly held beliefs about how society is to be regulated, some other
terms or terms must be found to express its character. Better in present
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circumstances to describe this country as a secular democracy, in which
secularism is becoming the dominant ideology.
There is nothing pluralistic, for instance, about educational theory and
practice in Britain.
There is nothing pluralistic about the increasing
efforts of many politicians to marginalize Christianity and to dismiss the
rights of Christians to defend their beliefs, to live according to the
dictates of those beliefs, and to be heard in the public square on matters
of common concern to all citizens.
Consider, for example, the way in
which Catholic adoption agencies have been required either to conform to
government legislation about who is entitled to adopt a child, or to stop
the work they have been doing for decades.
Consider the cases of
doctors, nurses and other professionals in the Health Service, whose
conscience does not permit them to promote a culture of death in any
form. Think of the difficulties facing applicants to medical schools, who
are unable to answer questions about their willingness or otherwise to
promote abortion to the satisfaction of their interlocutors.
I am not
persuaded to use terms like ‘multi-cultural’ and ‘pluralist’ with reference
to a society that knows little of the profound differences which exist
between cultures and which effectively rejects them all in favour of its
own secularist religion-less alternative.
This alternative ultimately
dismisses all religion, revealed or otherwise, as absurd.
Subjected to
critical scrutiny by some contemporary Darwinian evolutionary theorists,
religious beliefs and practices are deemed by them to survive only as
superstitious
‘non-sense’.
And for this reason, religion is to be
expunged from society. So much for ‘multiculturalism’.
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What is Islam?
I now raise the question, What is Islam? In doing so I want to describe
what I see as the challenge presented by Islam, indeed, by a resurgent
Islam, to Western values, and to suggest how we, as non-Muslims, might
respond constructively. Comparatively few people in the West appear to
be disposed to take the challenge of Islam seriously, unless it begins to
threaten the cosy indifference and the self-centred hedonism of the
secular society.
We can see that in the hands of some fanatical
individuals and groups resort to violence is replacing a disposition to
peaceful dialogue.
In particular, we note that there are Muslims, who
seek to justify their violent words and actions by invoking what they hold
to be sound Islamic principles. In such circumstances the indifference of
non-Muslims to what is happening is imprudent. How are the challenges
of ideological fanaticism, dogmatic anti-religious secularism, ethical
relativism, and sectarian fundamentalism to be met, from whatever source
they come, if Catholics, for instance, do not speak up in the name of the
spiritual and ethical values of Judaism and Christianity?
I am not a Muslim, but I have spent years studying Islamic belief and
religious practice. The fact that I am not a Muslim disqualifies me in the
eyes of some of the Muslims I have met over the years from saying
anything accurate or even useful about the subject.
Despite this
disadvantage, I try to understand what it means to be a Muslim. I have
spent years listening, in different parts of the world, to what Muslim
friends and colleagues have to say about the religion they profess. In the
post-colonial world Muslims are responding in vigorous and sometimes
violent ways to what they identify as the insidious threat of Western
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values on their own way of life.
Today we often hear about Islamic
jih«d, and fear its consequences.
We hear it translated into English as
‘Holy War’. In whose name is such a ‘war’ to be prosecuted, who is to
call for it, and against whom is it to be directed?
In Britain today there may well be more than two million Muslim citizens
and probably as many as four million. Precise figures are not available.
Muslims represent a substantial and increasingly influential minority in
this country.
In continental Europe the figures are even higher in
countries like France and Germany. The number is growing each year in
any case.
What you may not know—and this is really the point of my
question—is that according to orthodox Islamic belief everyone in this
room was born a Muslim. Muslims believe that we have been deprived
of our rightful spiritual patrimony by the culture in which we live. From
an Islamic perspective, therefore, for us to decide to choose Islam as our
way of life and belief would not involve conversion but a reversion to
what we originally were, because like every other living creature and
object in the cosmos, we were created by God in a natural state of Islam.
The Arabic word, al-fitra, is used to refer to the original and natural state
of human beings when they are born into the world. There is no doctrine
of original sin in Islam.
Children come into the world with their
primordial nature unsullied, in short, as natural Muslims.
This is the
spiritual patrimony inherited by all, whether or not they are born into a
family of believing Muslims, into an Islamic community, or into a society
in which Islam is either unknown or unrecognised.
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From a non-Islamic, perspective, Islam (al-isl«m, to use the Arabic term),
whether viewed as a threat or a challenge, may be considered in several
ways: in political, social, economic, and religious terms. Under each of
these headings much has been written and said in the increasingly secular
and secularising West about Islamic faith and practice. When I began to
be interested in religious and cultural diversity several decades ago, the
subject of ‘World Religions’ (including Islam of course, though not
always Christianity!) scarcely featured at all in the school curriculum,
whilst in the universities at the time such studies occupied the attention of
comparatively few specialists. The resurgence of Islam in the world and
the impact of the arrival of large numbers of Muslims in this country, in
France, Germany and other parts of continental Europe since the end of
the Second World War now make the study of Islam not merely an
interesting intellectual exercise for the comparatively few, but a prudent
priority for the many.
In response to the question What is Islam? I offer three answers, each of
which may strike you are painfully banal, but I shall proceed.
In fact
each answer provides an opportunity to explore the challenges (or the
threats) that Islam presents to the (as yet) non-Islamic West.
(i)
Islam is a major world religion. Its origins are claimed to be
divine. Its claims are not limited by narrow geographical and ethnic
boundaries.
It is universal in the strictest sense, in that it claims
exclusively to express the Creator’s will and purpose, not just for the
planet on which we live but also for the whole universe.
Islam is
exclusive in that it tolerates no other competitor for the allegiance of
humanity, indeed, for all God’s creatures.
It is here that the
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challenges of Islam are most clearly presented to the beliefs and
values of the Western world. Islam presents a clear alternative to the
predominantly secularist western ideas about pluralism and multiculturalism, in that Muslims claim that Islam is not just one possible
religious option among many others. Strictly speaking, the concepts
of pluralism and multi-culturalism are unislamic. So too is what we
may understand as inter-faith dialogue.
(ii)
Islam is an integrated way of life, in which secular Western
distinctions between church and state, between religion and politics,
between the sacred and the secular, are unislamic.
another challenge to the West.
This affords
Consider the implications of the
words, ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s’
(St Matthew 22.21), for Christian/Muslim dialogue.
(iii)
My third answer may strike you as altogether too obvious,
but let us see where it takes us.
enough.
Islam is an Arabic word.
True
Let me explain why this answer is not as banal as it may
appear. Arabic is the universal language of Islamic liturgy because it
is held by Muslims to be the language of God (All«h), of the Angels,
and of the revelation contained in the holy book, al-Qur’«n?
The
Holy Book of Islam contains 77,934 Arabic words, 6236 verses, and
323,621 letters. These figures are precise. Not one word, verse or
letter must be omitted in producing a copy.
‘translated’ into another language.
The text cannot be
We may have an English
‘version’, but it can never take the place of the original text.
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Arabic words are constructed from roots, which in the majority of
instances are tri-consonantal. I mentioned three such roots in my lecture.
They were √jhd, √slm, and √¯md.
Remember that the Arabic prefix
mu- often means ‘one who’, or ‘they who’. From the first of these roots
we had jih«d and muj«hid.
Both words are derived from jahada,
meaning ‘to strive to the utmost in the cause of God’. From the second
root we had sal«m, muslim, isl«m, and tasl»m. All the words from this
root suggest ‘peace’, ‘integrity’ and similar ideas, through ‘submission’
to the revealed will of God, i.e. obedience to the teachings of Islam.
From the third root signifying ‘praise’ and ‘the giving of praise’, we had
the name Mu¯ammad.
Responding to the challenge of Islam
Part of the short introductory sra, or chapter, of the Qur’«n reads thus:
‘Guide us in the Straight Path’. That path is the path of Islam, that is, of
submission to the will of God, a submission that alone can bring peace.
How is that submission to be expressed by a faithful Muslim, especially a
Muslim living in a secular society such as ours?
This, after all, is the
practical issue confronting us today, at a time when any criticism of
Islam, or of what is done in the name of Islam, is so often seen as
culpable Islamophobia, a fear of Islam.
I have already described Islam as a ‘religion’, and as ‘a world religion’,
but we need to be careful about our use of that word ‘religion’. Muslims
use the term in a more comprehensive and inclusive way than we tend to
do in the West. If we consider Islam as a religion, we should note what
Muslims understand by the Arabic word for religion, namely, al-d»n.
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There are three inter-related aspects of d»n. First, there is »m«n. This
refers to the six beliefs, the faith of a Muslim; second, there is ‘ib«d«t,
which refers to the five obligatory religious duties of a Muslim; third,
there is i¯s«n, a term that refers to ethical behaviour and right conduct.
Taken together, these three elements of ‘religion’, as Muslims understand
the term, present a formidable alternative world-view to that with which
we in the West are becoming increasingly familiar, with its progressive
marginalisation of religious belief and action.
In the West, it seems,
religion is considered to be a purely personal matter, something that may
or may not accord with private inclination.
Islam, on the other hand,
stands in opposition to this secular view of the world.
Indeed, it is the
responsibility of every Muslim to assist in transforming what is known in
Arabic as the d«r al-¯arb (that is, ‘the abode of war’) into the d«r alisl«m (that is, ‘abode of Islam’).
Britain and the West, generally, are
parts of the d«r al-¯arb.
Muslims protest about the way in which Christians seek to conduct
mission work throughout the world.
In fact it is difficult, if not
impossible, for Christians to gain access to Islamic countries for that
purpose. Muslims, on the other hand, claim the right to practise and to
preach Islam everywhere. Individual Muslims and Islamic organisations
work hard to increase Islamic influence in the West.
They have every
right to do so in a democratic country.
Consider some ways in which Muslims, quite legally, seek to extend the
influence of Islam in the West:
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(a)
By building mosques and Islamic schools
Naturally enough both are needed by increasing numbers of British
Muslims for prayer and worship, for instruction in Islam, and especially
for teaching and interpreting the Qur’«n.
On Fridays Muslims
congregate for public prayer in the mosque and to listen to the weekly
khutba, the Friday sermon. The mosque also serves in many other ways
as a cultural and social centre for local Muslims.
The presence of
mosques points to the presence of a Muslim community, whether you and
I enter the building or not. Note in passing that the building of Christian
churches in Islamic countries is not permitted.
(b)
By using due legal process in cases of discrimination
Litigation continues to grow throughout the Western world.
It is not
surprising, therefore, that Muslims in Europe resort to law in order to
secure what they claim to be their right to practise Islam freely and
without hindrance.
Several specific examples can be mentioned,
including cases to secure the right to slaughter animals for food and
sacrifice according to Islamic principles; the right to make the traditional
calls to prayer five times each day from the mosque precincts, amplified
where necessary by electronic means; the right of girls and women to
wear the veil or the headscarf at school and at work; the right to leave
work for the purpose of making the five daily acts of public prayer and
worship; the right of educating Muslim children in Islamic schools.
These matters require the proper authorities in the West to make detailed
investigations of Islamic life and belief.
But what follows if special
exceptions for particular minorities are made to the general laws and rules
by which a society is regulated?
If and when these exceptions are not
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made, such minorities may feel discriminated against.
This is not an
unimportant point to make in the case of Muslims, who may take the
view (as many already do) that the only solution is to insist finally on the
right to regulate the life of the Islamic community in Britain according to
Islamic law, al-shar»‘a.
There is much more to this than might be
gathered from those who remind us about the penalties prescribed in
Islamic law for theft, adultery and apostasy.
It is not within my
competence to comment on the provisions of Islamic law with regard to
marriage, divorce and re-marriage, the family and inheritance, but what is
to be our response to these claims for different treatment in law to that
given to the majority of non-Muslim citizens in this country?
Consider the interesting case of the 16 year old Muslim girl, Shab»na
Begum [Hindi begam, a Muslim woman of high rank, a princess, in India
or Pakistan].
In pursuit of what she and her supporters take to be her
right to wear the jilb«b to Denbigh High School in Luton, she went to
court.
In consequence she was sent home to change into the approved
school uniform.
Her first attempt to reverse the school’s decision was
refused in court. I understand that she lost two years’ schooling before
she was successful in the Appeals Court earlier this month [March 2005]
in gaining a judgement that effectively overruled the school’s decision.
There are several things to note here. Firstly, that the great majority of
children in this school are Muslims.
Yasmin Bevan, is a Muslim.
Secondly, that the headmistress,
Thirdly, that Shab»na Begum refused to
wear the Islamic dress for girls that had already been agreed by members
of the school authorities and representatives from the local Council of
Mosques. This agreed and recommended form of dress, itself adopted as
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a kind of school uniform for Muslim girls, is the shalwar kameez, which
consists of loose-fitting trousers and a knee-length tunic. Throughout the
case her brother, Shuwab Rahman, has supported her.
both dead.
Their parents are
He is alleged to have links with an organisation (¯izb al-
ta¯r»r, ‘party of the liberation’, or perhaps ¯izb al-thawr, ‘party of the
revolution’), which is proscribed in parts of the Islamic world. But note
also that the decision in favour of Shab»na Begum has not been
welcomed by all Muslims in this country. Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, leader
of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, is quoted as saying that he was
‘saddened’ by the decision of the Appeals Court.
Journalists and
commentators tend to speak about ‘the right of a female to wear Islamic
dress’, as if all Muslims are agreed on what this is. In Islam there are
different interpretations of the kind of female attire that constitutes
‘Islamic dress’ and protects the identity of a Muslim, male or female.
(c)
By using television, the Internet and the chat room
All three media are increasingly used throughout the world, especially by
young people.
The Internet pays no attention to national or cultural
boundaries. Nor is it subject to real censorship. A casual glance at what
is on offer reveals numerous websites from which information about
Islam can be downloaded.
Some of these websites use the freedom of
the web to encourage ‘reversion’ to Islam. Others use the same methods
to propagate their own beliefs.
Muslims are engaged in vigorous
campaigns to promote Islamic beliefs and ideals, in the firm conviction
that Europe will eventually become part of the Islamic world. They see a
great opportunity for Islam, pointing to the decline of Christian belief and
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practice in the West, and to the moral decadence (as they see it) in an
irreligious and even anti-religious Europe.
How, then, are non-Muslims to respond?
First, they need to be clearer
about what they, as individuals and members of a democratic society,
believe themselves.
If you have access to digital television you might
care to watch the Islamic Channels, for example channels 787 and 819
(al-Nr, ‘the Light’) on my satellite dish list of programmes. More than
anything else I know this will give you a good idea of what members of
the Islamic community in this country are thinking and doing. Second,
non-Muslims need to re-consider the concepts of democracy and
tolerance.
What do Muslims mean by these terms?
indifference should be carefully distinguished.
Tolerance and
Are there limits to
tolerance in a secular democratic society such as ours? Even a cursory
examination reveals the fact that the values, beliefs and customs of
Muslims often conflict with those of a secular democracy. The integrity,
the cohesion, of society depends upon preserving the principle of
majority rule. Whether or not Islam constitutes a challenge or a threat,
whether it is an enrichment or an impoverishment of our democratic
society, are questions to be considered.
The history of the astonishing
rise and development of Islam from the 7th century after Christ to the
present day has been almost ignored in the West until comparatively
recently.
It has also (so Muslims aver) been misunderstood.
Misunderstandings about religion generally, and about Christianity in
particular, seem to be increasing.
Remember that Islam began as a
religion for a few living in an obscure and isolated part of what is now
Saudi Arabia. Within a few years it developed into an organised State,
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with its own distinctive polity.
As its influence spread, first across the
‘island of the Arabs’, thence into the Fertile Crescent, then westwards to
Spain and the Atlantic coast, and eastwards to China, it became a militant
polity. This way of life and belief, al-Isl«m, is now here in Britain.
Commenting on plans for future legislation about restrictions on religious
freedom in Britain, Kalim Siddiqui, a leading Muslim, is on record as
saying: ‘Let us make it quite clear.
Muslims will oppose and, if
necessary, defy any policy or legislation that we regard as inimical to our
interests.’ Before criticising this statement we should consider our own
attitudes to the legitimacy of breaking the laws that don’t happen to suit
us.
This approach to potentially discriminating secular democratic
legislation is an interesting development. What might be an appropriate
Catholic response to such legislation?
Professor E.D.A. Hulmes KCHS MA BD DPhil (Oxon)