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1 3. 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 2 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’. 3 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 4 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. 5 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 6 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. 7 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. 8 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: 9 (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 1 0 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 1 1 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 1 2 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, 1 3 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)