Download Catholics, Muslims and a Resurgent Islam

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Catholics, Muslims and a Resurgent Islam
Edward Hulmes
In my youth the world of Islam was a foreign country. Or as one of my
Oxford tutors used to put it with typical donnish caution, ‘the worlds
of Islam (plural) show considerable diversity’.
that when we are talking about Muslims.
We should remember
The history of Islam is much
more complex than many people think. This, however, is not the time
or place for complexity. As a young student I realised that most of the
people with whom I wanted to share my new enthusiasm knew little or
nothing about Islam.
That is still true.
A few eccentrics in Colleges
and Universities can be left in peace to study Arabic and the story of
how an Islamic way of life developed, if they choose to do so.
Things are a little different now.
In the light of recent events in the
USA, Madrid, London, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and elsewhere, that lack of
general interest has been replaced dramatically by a general concern
about what Islam really is, and about how we in the non-Islamic West
are to cope with its resurgence, not least in Britain.
A vague interest
and concern are insufficient if we are to recognise the seriousness of
the situation we face.
In order to bring this situation into sharper
focus let me begin with a few key Arabic words and phrases, all of
which you will have read or heard many times in recent months.
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First, the word ³alib«n, the name used by groups across the Islamic
world, which play a violent role in opposing western ideas. The name
means ‘students’, that is students of the strict Islamic path.
Only a
few days ago there came a report from Pakistan of a terrorist attack
carried out by the Taliban after they had prepared for it with prayers in
a mosque; the word burqa refers to the long veil worn in public places
by Muslim women, which leaves only the eyes exposed; ¯amas, i.e.
¯arakat al-muq«wama al-isl«m»ya, ‘the movement of Islamic
resistance’; ¯ij«b the dress, specifically, the head- and face-covering,
worn by a Muslim woman in order to present herself in public with due
modesty. ¯izbull«h, ‘the Islamic Party of God’; al-q«‘ida, the group
of Muslims, founded on the firm foundation of Islam, and feared in the
non-Islamic West for its preoccupation with terrorism and the defeat of
those who do not accept Islam; shar»‘a courts in Britain, working
initially in parallel with the existing British legal system and then in
place of it.
And so on.
As so often in the past, the difficulty is
ignorance of the facts, and with this ignorance goes a lamentable
readiness to reduce discussion to the point of triviality.
I shall make
use of three sub-headings: Varieties of Islam; Faith and Culture; What
is Islam?
After that, and if it seems to be appropriate, the field is
open for questions and comments.
1.
Varieties of Islam
Islam is not without its sectarian divisions, and this has been the case
from the time of the Prophet Mu¯ammad (c.570-632). It sometimes
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seems that Islam is at war with itself, with Muslims fighting Muslims.
Another instance of this fratricidal strife occurred only a few days ago
in Baghdad, when over a hundred Muslims were murdered in an
explosion organised by another group of Muslims. I am not concerned
here with these divisions, important as they are.
They have existed
for centuries among Muslims themselves, divisions that have led to
bloodshed from the earliest years of Islam, as they still do in Iraq, Iran,
Pakistan and parts of Indonesia, for instance.
Most of us have heard
of Sunn» and Sh»‘» Muslims, but when I speak about varieties of Islam,
I have something else in mind, namely, the distinction between what is
being called ‘hard line Islam’, and ‘a more human kind of Islam’,
between the ‘unacceptable face of Islam’ and ‘the acceptable face of
Islam’. Needless to say this distinction is not often made by Muslims.
It is made by non-Muslims, chiefly in the secular West as a result of
some wishful thinking, for which there are good reasons. Most of us in
this country and generally speaking in the western world are tolerant of
religious and cultural diversity. We like to think we are tolerant of the
beliefs and actions of others, including those who, in increasing
numbers, are Muslim fellow-citizens and perhaps neighbours. As nonMuslims, however, we are not in a position to decide who is and who is
not ‘a good Muslim’.
Muslims themselves are reluctant to do so,
insisting on the one hand that Islam is the religion of peace, but on the
other hand refusing to condemn fellow Muslims in public for engaging in
acts of violence perpetrated, as they claim, ‘in the cause of All«h’.
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There is no decisive authority in Islam, universally accepted by
Muslims, which defines orthodoxy for them in the way the
Magisterium performs this important task for Catholics
There are
voices in Islam, including those of some of the more prominent
leaders in parts of the Islamic world, who interpret Islam in terms of
unremitting ‘Holy War’ against the infidel.
to be heard in British mosques.
These voices are also
You may have noticed the use of
the term ‘Islamist’, a word used by non-Muslims to express their
distaste for a variety of Islam they find distasteful because it
favours the use of violence against non-believers, but non-Muslims
can not deny that an Islamist is also a Muslim.
An Islamist also
quotes Qur’anic texts and other Islamic sources to justify acts of
violence against the infidel in the cause of All«h and in the pursuit
of jih«d.
We are told that the essential meaning of the Arabic
word jih«d is ‘personal struggle’, that is to say, the constant
personal effort needed to be a faithful Muslim in a secular world
that denies the truth of God’s revelation in Islam for everyone.
That this struggle calls for personal effort is undoubtedly true, but
we should not forget that from the beginnings of Islam this personal
effort has never excluded the use of violence as a justifiable tactic
against unbelief.
Today, however, we hear more about two
varieties of Islam, and two types of Muslim:
‘…there are sincere Muslims who wish to maintain their faith
without undermining their adopted country. On the other, there
are those who practise taq»ya, the lying and secrecy justified in
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the name of spreading Islam, in order to overthrow our ‘infidel’
order.’ Chales Moore in the Daily Telegraph, 13 October 2009.
Islamic reformers of the kind encouraged by liberal opinion in the West
have rarely enjoyed the tolerance of other Muslims, wherever they have
appeared in the Islamic world.
Here and there are signs that changes
are desired if not yet permitted.
Recent signs of a welcome shift on
the part of liberal Muslims to cease identifying ‘true’ Muslims as those
who love other Muslims and ‘false’ Muslims as those who hate nonMuslims.
In Egypt, and even in Saudi Arabia, for instance, the
heartland of a strict form of Islam, there is a groundswell of opinion that
questions the subordinate role of women.
It is said that Muslims in
Britain have experienced problems, arising from the misunderstanding
of Islam that prevails among the population. The picture is blurred by
calls for Muslims to integrate into British society.
Much of the
misunderstanding could be speedily removed if Islamic leaders in this
country, together with prominent British Muslims, were prepared to
make clear that what is seen as radical and extremist Islam is unislamic.
If ‘Islamism’ is contrary to the beliefs, obligations and principles of
authentic Islam, Muslims themselves are in the best position to name it
for what it is and to call for reform.
This would take some courage,
however, and it would promote controversy among Muslims themselves,
not only in Britain.
Our politicians, in public at least, are not
prepared to risk a confrontation with members of the Islamic community
in Britain.
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2.
Faith and Culture
My interest in Islam, Islamic history and my involvement in dialogue
with Muslims is based on a respect for a way of life that began to
spread worldwide from a remote part of what is now Saudi Arabia
fourteen centuries ago.
Having said this, I remain a Catholic, neither
an apologist for Islam nor an unfriendly critic of the ways in which Islam
influences the lives not only of Muslims but the rest of us. On the 28th
December this year Muslims will celebrate Islamic New Year, numbered
1430 according to the lunar calendar, which reckons the years that
have passed since the Prophet Mu¯ammad moved from the city of his
birth, Mecca to Medina, the place where he began to establish himself
as leader of the Muslim community. That year, 621 AD (Anno Domini)
is known by Muslims as 1 AH (Anno Hijrae, a term I can explain later).
Muslims, however, believe that Islam began long before the year AH 1,
or AD 621.
They believe that from the beginning of creation Islam
was, and remains, ‘the religion with God’, as the Qur’«n (Koran) puts
it.
As such Islam is much older than either Judaism or Christianity.
Muslims believe that from the beginning of creation All«h revealed His
will and purpose in the form of Islam. Indeed, according to the Koran,
the first Muslim was Ibr«h»m (Abraham).
It was the Prophet
Mu¯ammad, Muslims affirm, who re-introduced the true religion of
Islam after it had been traduced and even corrupted, not least by Jews
and Christians.
mankind.
Islam, so Muslims aver, is the natural religion of
Everyone in this room, like every other human being, was
born a Muslim.
If you and I were to become Muslims, we would,
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strictly speaking revert, not convert, to the religion of Islam into which
we born, and thus start to recover our lost spiritual patrimony.
If we
are ever to engage seriously with Muslims and the claims of Islam, we
must make some attempt to understand what Islam is and what Muslims
object to in the Western political and educational tradition.
Note,
incidentally, that the concepts of ‘pluralism’ and ‘multi-culturalism’,
as advocated in a secular society such as ours, have no place in an
Islamic society.
In Britain we live in a secular democracy, a political
concept that is contrary to the principles of Islam.
With whom are we in contact when we engage in dialogue with
Muslims?
They are the inheritors of a way of life that has left the
world a richly diverse spiritual and cultural legacy.
Two phrases in
Arabic, neither of which is easily translated into English, provide clues
to the nature of that legacy.
The first, ‘abqar»yat al-isl«m, means
‘the genius, the ingenuity (indeed, the fragrance) of Islam’;
the
second, tur«th al-isl«m. means ‘the heritage, the inheritance of
Islam’. Consider that heritage for a moment. No-one who has come
to appreciate the intellectual achievements of Islamic scholars and the
spiritual legacy of Muslim philosophers, saints and poets, can fail to be
impressed by the splendours and the diversity of Islamic civilisation.
The singular beauty of the architecture of so many mosques in the
world, the aesthetic beauty of the Arabic Qur’«n, the elegance of
Arabic calligraphy, the geometric complexities of Islamic mosaics, the
serene beauty of a classic Islamic garden, the concentrated devotion of
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devout Muslims at prayer, all testify to a living tradition that it is all
too easy to overlook in the climate of suspicion engendered by acts of
terror committed by those who claim to serve the cause of Islam, which
by definition is the cause of God. These are the fruits of a faith that is
the foundation of a religion, a way of life, which is found in a variety of
forms from Morocco to Indonesia, despite the sectarian differences that
have arisen within Islam.
The integrity of the Islamic way of life is
preserved by the principles that are everywhere the same, though its
local cultural expression differs.
3.What is Islam?
I want to give two simple answers this important question.
With the
short amount of time available, there is little more that I can do, but
you can find out much more with their aid if you care to do so.
To
begin with, I could say that Islam is a major world religion, and that
would be true enough. Think about the implications of that phrase, ‘a
major world religion’. What might that mean? I might add that Islam
admits of no distinction between the sacred and the secular.
True,
again. In the post-Christian West the distinction between Church and
State is a basic article of secular ideology.
The result is that all
religions tend to be marginalized by being virtually excluded from the
public square. ‘Practise your religion if you must, but do it in private,
and don’t presume to allow your religious convictions to influence the
ways in which society is regulated’.
Neither Muslims nor Catholics
can allow themselves to be excluded in this way because democracy
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depends on people of conviction working peacefully, legally, vigorously
and without apologies in the public square for what they believe.
There is plenty of evidence of an increasing marginalisation of
Christianity in Britain. Muslims, on the other hand, believe that there
can be no such distinction between religion and politics, between the
sacred and the secular.
There can be no marginalisation of Islam,
because Islam is the Truth revealed by God for the benefit of everyone
in the world in every aspect of human existence.
Alongside this belief
Muslims reject the notion that any other religion can be true.
They
hold that non-Muslims all need to convert (or to revert) to Islam,
because it is the only true path to personal and communal fulfilment.
My second answer looks obvious, but remember that we are concerned
with the question of how we are to respond to the challenge presented
to us by the claims of Islam. The earlier answer I gave to my question,
‘What is Islam?’ gets us off to a start.
Islam is an Arabic word.
My second answer is that
Obviously, but wait a moment.
In that
answer there is a key to an understanding of what Islam means to
Muslims.
Arabic plays an unique role in the lives of all Muslims,
whether or not they actually speak the language. It is the language in
which God Himself chose to address humanity.
For Muslims
throughout the world Arabic is the language of the daily liturgy,
whatever their native languages may be.
Arabic is the language of
daily prayer and worship, in the mosque and in private.
Five times
each day a devout Muslim uses Arabic, and only Arabic, to recite the
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prescribed prayers.
Arabic is the language of the holy Book of Islam,
al-Qur’«n, which must be recited aloud in Arabic, because it can
never be translated into any other language and remain what it uniquely
is, namely and literally, ‘the Word of God’, that is to say, God’s selfexpression.
So what does he Arabic word isl«m (no capital) mean?
From the three consonants that form its root, namely, slm, we know
that it signifies ‘peace’, ‘harmony’, ‘welfare’, ‘submission to God’s
revealed will and purpose as the path to human fulfilment’.
And from
the same three consonant root we have the word Muslim, that is to
say, one who willingly seeks to enter into this state of peace and
personal fulfilment by submitting his or her will to the will of God.
This, then, is the challenge of Islam for us in the secular western world.
Islam presents Catholics with an alternative system of faith, morals and
social action.
Whether or not that challenge will be intensified by
Muslims who choose to use violent methods in the pursuit of their aims
or by the kind of peaceful persuasion that was at the heart of Pope
Benedict XVI’s famous lecture in Regensburg, we shall have to wait
and see.
In the meantime we can always learn more about our own faith as well
as about Islam.
written.
Years ago I sat down to plan a book that was never
It seemed to me then, as it seems to me now, that the title I
had in mind said it all. At the top of page one I wrote ‘On becoming a
Catholic, especially if you were born one’. It has sometimes been put
to me by critics of the Church that being a Catholic has more to do
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with a sort of vague cultural loyalty than with an appreciation of the
Teaching of the Church. Perhaps so. The same, I suppose, might be
said of the way in which Muslims approach the beliefs and practices of
Islam.
If we and those who come after us know less and les about the
Catholic faith we profess, the Islamicisation of Britain and the rest of
Europe may well proceed by default rather than by conviction.
___________________________________________________________
©
Edward D.A. Hulmes KCHS MA BD DPhil (Oxon)
[email protected]
www.edwardhulmes.co.uk
___________________________________________________________
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Note 1
Pope Benedict XVI and ‘the Regensburg Lecture’
There has been much misunderstanding and misplaced criticism of what
the Pope said in the Aula Magna of the University of Regensburg on
Tuesday 12 September 2006. He had been invited to speak at the
University he had previously served as a distinguished Professor. His
subject was ‘Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and
Reflections’.
The Pope’s intention on that occasion was not to
provoke controversy, but to encourage believers, whether Christians or
Muslims, to eschew violence in the pursuit of their religious beliefs and
to explore together the intimate relationship between faith and reason.
The Pope referred to an exchange that took place, ‘…perhaps in 1391
in the winter barracks near Ankara, between the Byzantine emperor
Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of
Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both. It was presumably the
emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of
Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his
arguments are given in greater detail than those of his Persian
interlocutor. The dialogue ranges widely over the structures of faith
contained in the Bible and in the Qur’«n, and deals especially with the
image of God and of man, while necessarily returning repeatedly to the
relationship between, as they were called, three ‘Laws’ or ‘rules of
life’: the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Qur’«n.
In the seventh conversation, the emperor touches on the theme of the
holy war.
The emperor must have known that sra 2, 256 reads:
‘There is no compulsion in religion’. According to the experts, this is
one of the sras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless
and under threat.
But naturally the emperor also knew the
instructions, developed later and recorded in the Qur’«n, concerning
holy war. Without descending to details, such as the difference in
treatment accorded to those who have the ‘Book’ and the ‘infidels’,
he addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness on the
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central question about the relationship between religion and violence in
general, saying: ‘Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new,
and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his
command to spread by the sword the faith he preached’.
The
emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to
explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is
something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of
God and the nature of the soul. ‘God’, he says, ‘is not pleased by
blood, and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is
born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith
needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence
and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a
strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening
a person with death...’.
The point of the Pope’s argument is that if we are to engage in serious
dialogue with Muslims about Truth, we have to use a shared language
of rational discourse.
For Catholics this is based on Faith and
Reason, fides et ratio, proceeding on the basis of the Natural Law,
which from the beginning of creation has been the guiding light for
human beings everywhere. Only when this is mutually acknowledged
can we go on to present our beliefs in the light of the discrete
revelations we claim to have received from God.
___________________________________________________________
Note 2.
taq»ya, ‫ وقى‬see Q. 2.159; 16.106:
‘Those who conceal/ The Clear (Signs) We have/ Sent down, and the
Guidance,/ After We have made it/ Clear for the People/ In the Book,
- on them/ Shall be God’s curse,/ And the curse of those/ Entitled to
curse.’
‘Any one who, after accepting/ Faith in God, utters Unbelief, -/
Except under compulsion,/ His heart remainig firm/ In Faith – but such
as/ Open their breast to Unbelief, -/ On them is Wrath from God,/
And theirs will be/ A dreadful Penalty.’
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Fear of persecution and death, leading to the concealment and the
disguising, of one’s religion as a Sh»‘» Muslim.
Dissimulation in
order to spread the religion of Islam in a non-Islamic environment.
___________________________________________________________
Dr Patrick Sookhdeo
International Director, Barnabas Fund
30/Oct/09
Introduction
Recent months have seen a number of unexpected and extremely encouraging
statements coming out of the Muslim world.
Respected, mainstream Muslim
leaders in a variety of countries have voiced opinions which are at odds with
traditional, conservative Islam. They have challenged aspects of shari‘a and are
calling for a liberal, modernist, enlightened Islam compatible with Western norms.
Perhaps the most significant of all is a comment by a group of British Muslims
calling for an end to the apostasy law and for full freedom in all religious matters.
Since modernisation first impacted the Muslim world following the imposition of
secular laws and education systems by Western colonial empires, there have been
tensions between Muslim conservatives and liberal intellectuals. Islamic
traditionalists and Islamists have on the whole gained the dominant voice within
Islam, especially since the Islamic resurgence which began in the 1970s and has
swept all before it. These conservatives saw shari‘a as divinely inspired and
unchangeable, valid for all times and places, and attacked the few liberal voices
seeking to reinterpret the Muslim sources in line with modern contexts and human
rights.
A small minority of marginalised Muslim progressives has been bravely defying
traditional and Islamist pressures by reinterpreting Islam in a way compatible with
modern concepts of secularity, individual human rights, religious freedom and
gender equality. However, recently some significant cracks seem to be forming
within mainstream Islam. Important mainstream leaders are coming out against
long-held key traditional views and Wahhabi-Salafi doctrines and practices, openly
supporting ideas compatible with modernity. It would seem that the reformist
teachings of Ahmad Khan (1817 - 1898) and Muhammad ‘Abduh (1849 -1905),
which had been suppressed, are now resurfacing within mainstream Islam. As some
experts on Islam have always been saying, "the really decisive battle is taking place
within Muslim civilization, where ultraconservatives compete against moderates and
democrats for the soul of the Muslim public."
Some examples:
Kuwaiti Women MPs refuse to wear hijab
[1]
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Two Kuwaiti women Members of Parliament, among the first four women to be
elected to Kuwait`s National Assembly in May 2009, have refused to wear the
Islamic headscarf (hijab) in parliament. They demanded the annulment of an
amendment to electoral regulations, introduced by Islamists, that enforces the
observation of shari‘a in parliament.
[2]
Tantawi and the niqab at al-Azhar
During a recent tour of a Cairo secondary school, Sheikh Muhammad Tantawi, the
Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar University in Cairo (the most important Sunni theological
centre in the world), was angered by the sight of a girl wearing the niqab (the full
veil which covers the face with only slits for the eyes). He instructed her to remove
the niqab, saying "The niqab is a tradition; it has no connection with religion".
[3]
Ironically, the girl claimed to have worn the niqab in honour of his visit.
Tantawi angrily told the girl that the niqab "has nothing to do with Islam and is
only a custom" and ordered her to take it off. He also announced that he would
soon issue a formal order (fatwa) banning girls from entering al-Azhar institutions
wearing the niqab. "Niqab has nothing to do with Islam, it is just a habit. I know
[4]
more about religion than you and your parents," he told the student.
Dr.
Mahmoud Hamdi Zarqouq, Egyptian Minister of Religious Affairs, went further than
Tantawi declaring his utter opposition to the niqab, stressing that "it is just a habit
that has nothing to do with religion . . . niqab is an invention that has nothing to do
with religion, for the religious men agree that the women`s face and jaws are not
improper [to show]."
[5]
[6]
Imam condemns Church passivity in face of Muslim persecution of Christians
In an interview with Premier Christian Radio earlier this year, Sheikh Dr
Muhammad al-Hussaini, founder of Scripture Reasoning and Lecturer in Islamic
Studies at Leo Beck Rabbinical College, blamed the church hierarchy in the UK for
not protesting vociferously and actively at Christian persecution around the world.
Al-Hussaini mentioned specifically horrendous machete attacks on Christians in
Nigeria, Iraqi Christians being burned out of their homes and Christians in Pakistan
being stoned or attacked on the slightest pretext. He highlighted Barnabas Fund`s
efforts on behalf of persecuted Christians as an example of how concerned
Christians ought to respond to the plight of their fellow Christians.
While Muslims are hypersensitive to any ill-treatment of Muslims anywhere in the
world, he added, they remain silent about the persecution of Christians in their
midst. Many Muslims are simply looking for scapegoats to punish for their own
troubles. They know that churches in the West will not do more than utter a
whimper, as this issue is not sufficiently important to them, mainly because those
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suffering are neither white nor wealthy, so they can go on with impunity blaming
Crusader-Zionist conspiracies for everything.
He called upon the church to be a voice for justice for persecuted minorities, which
he claims would speak "into the heart of the Muslim community".
[7]
"Contextualising Islam in Britain" report
This report, published in October 2009, is the work of several prominent British
Muslim academics and religious leaders. It has broken new ground in coming out
with plain statements on key issues, avoiding the ambiguous statements customarily
offered by mainline Muslim leaders. It calls for a Muslim worldview based not
exclusively on jurisprudence but including Islamic philosophy (falsafah), theology
(kalam) and literature (adab). For Muslims living as a minority in a secular liberal
democracy, applying shari‘a is a matter of personal conscience and communal
suasion rather than legal sanction, says the report. Muslims are not obliged to
[8]
implement full shari‘a against the wishes of their non-Muslim neighbours.
Shari‘a is not a detailed code of things forbidden and permitted but an ethical
system of moral and spiritual education. There are commonalities between the
underlying objectives (maqasid) of shari‘a and human rights declarations.
[9]
The paper opposes the traditional view of divine sovereignty only implemented in
an Islamic state under shari‘a. It states that this system engenders a lack of
democratic checks and balance, a lack of accountability, and may lead to tyranny.
An Islamic state is not necessary for Islam to thrive and be practised. Secular
democracy as practised in Britain is legitimate because it holds power to account
and upholds fundamental freedoms and non-interference in the religious lives of its
[10]
citizens.
British Muslims, say the authors, are perfectly happy with the British form of
procedural secularism (in contrast to ideological secularism) and support its
accommodative tradition. The separation of religion from the state and the principle
of non-discrimination by the state between religions guarantee freedom and
equality for all, giving Muslims the freedom to practise Islam without interference in
[11]
The authors clearly oppose the concepts of takfir [12] and al-wala` wal-bara`
[13] which differentiate sharply between perceived true believers and all others,
an atmosphere of respect, security and dignity.
demanding hostility and enmity. Distinctions between believers and non-believers
are important only in matters of doctrine and worship, not in matters of social
interaction and of seeking the common good of society. In these matters it is
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important to have friendly relationships with non-Muslims, treating them as equals,
and to focus on commonalities and shared values.
[14]
The paper states that Islam teaches the equality of all humans regardless of gender
and that it forbids forced marriages, domestic violence, female genital mutilation,
and honour killings.
[15]
Muslims should campaign against injustices and
[16]
oppression inflicted by Muslims on other Muslims and on non-Muslims.
On
suicide terrorism and bombings they state that there are many ways to oppose
oppression other than fighting (jihad). These include lobbying, activism, and
[17]
writing. Foreign conflicts cannot justify violence in Britain.
They add that
"Islam is opposed to all forms of terrorism, regardless of who sponsors them . . .
Both suicide and suicide bombings are absolutely forbidden (haram) in Islam as is
[18]
the killing of innocent people.
The authors adopt the modern Christian principle of differentiating between
religious sin and state-legislated crime. Thus on apostasy they explain that Islam
dislikes apostasy but prohibits discrimination against apostates, adding that: "It is
important to say quite simply that people have the freedom to enter the Islamic
faith and the freedom to leave it". Similarly on homosexuality they state that the
Qur`an forbids both the practice of homosexual acts, and discrimination against
homosexuals.
[19]
The declaration on apostasy is especially important because it goes clearly against
the shari‘a law of apostasy, accepted by all Islamic schools of law, which lays down
a death sentence for those who leave Islam. The authors explain that in early Islam
apostasy was conflated with treason in times of war. It was treason that merited the
death penalty, not the apostasy. Therefore today "there is no compulsion and
[20]
people cannot be coerced into a religious commitment".
Other Muslim
leaders dealing with apostasy had not dared question the validity of the classical
apostasy law, but had either asked for the repentance phase (usually 3 days) to be
lengthened indefinitely (for example, Ali Gomaa, Chief Mufti of Egypt) or for a
moratorium until the time was deemed ripe for the full implementation of shari‘a
(for example, Tariq Ramadan).
Analysis
There is now a powerful struggle going on for the soul of Islam. It would seem that
under the combined pressure of extremist Islamist terrorism, the "war on terror"
and the dangers to Muslim regimes and societies, new voices are emerging within
[21]
mainstream Islamic leadership embracing a new ijtihad
compatible with
modernity and human rights. They would seem to accept the liberal reformist view
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of prioritising the core values of Islam, distilled from the Islamic source texts, as
spiritual and moral norms that override literalist, coercive, political and social
interpretations. They seem to be willing to ignore traditional Islamic concepts that
contradict modern humanistic values of pluralism, freedom and equality.
Conclusion
France has forbidden the wearing of the hijab in public places and recently its
highest constitutional authority, the Constitutional Council, has refused the
introduction of Islamic finance on the grounds that a secular state must not allow
[22]
principles of shari‘a to be recognised in its legislation.
In contrast, the
governments of the USA and of the UK have consistently sided with the more
repressive, conservative and traditional sections within their Muslim communities,
apparently hoping to placate, accommodate and appease them by accepting their
demands for shari‘a implementation in multiple spheres. At the same time they
have ignored the more progressive and liberal voices in the Muslim community
implying that they are too weak and marginal to be viable interlocutors for
governments.
Arab liberals have criticised President Obama`s tendency to endorse conservative
and radical forms of Islam while ignoring liberal Muslim trends. A Yemeni liberal
journalist accused Obama of appointing Muslim advisors who do not represent the
diversity of Muslim opinion and who want to implement oppressive shari‘a
[23] Others have criticised Obama`s overtures to the Taliban and Iran as
strengthening the radicals and weakening the reformists and liberals. [24] A
rules.
similar trend is visible in liberal and mainline Christian denominations whose leaders
prefer to deal with Islamic traditionalists and hardliners in interfaith dialogue while
ignoring the liberal reformist voices emerging within Islam. It is time Western
governments and Christian Churches implemented a policy of rejecting traditional
Muslim and Islamist demands and that they shifted to a position of active support
for the new voices of reason and moderation within Islam.
Barnabas Fund
applauds these encouraging moves and the courageous Muslims advocating them.
(c) Barnabas Fund, 29 October 2009
[1]
Robert W. Hefner, "September 11 and the Struggle for Islam", in Craig
Calhoun, Paul Price, and Ashley Timmer, eds., Understanding September 11,
Project coordinated by the Social Science Research Council, New York: The New
Press., 2002, pp. 41-52.
[2] Richard Spencer, "Kuwaiti women MPs refuse to wear hijab in parliament",
Daily Telegraph, 12 October 2009.
19
[3]
Adrian Blomfield, "Egypt purges niqab from schools and colleges", Daily
Telegraph, 5 October 2009.
[4]
"Sheikh al-Azhar forces a student to remove her Niqab", Mideastwire, 5
October 2009, quoting Al-Masry al-Yawm, "Egypt`s Top Cleric Plans Face Veil
Ban in Schools", Asharq Alawsat, 6 October 2009.
[5]
"Sheikh al-Azhar: I`m not against Niqab and 80% of religious men...",
Mideastwire, 13 October 2009, quoting Al-Masry al-Yawm.
[6] "Imam blames Christian leaders for the Persecution of Christians", Christian
Concern for our Nation, 28 August 2009, http://www.ccfon.org/view.php?id=825,
accessed 20 October 2009.
[7]
Contextualising Islam in Britain: Exploratory Perspectives, University of
Cambridge in Association with the Universities of Exeter and Westminster, Centre
of Islamic Studies: Cambridge, October 2009.
[8] Contextualising Islam in Britain: Exploratory Perspectives, pp. 10-11.
[9] Contextualising Islam in Britain: Exploratory Perspectives, pp. 10-11, 54.
[10] Contextualising Islam in Britain: Exploratory Perspectives, pp. 10-11, 3233.
[11] Contextualising Islam in Britain: Exploratory Perspectives, pp. 28, 33.
[12] takfir - the process of declaring someone to be an apostate from Islam, a
process which has been revived by radical contemporary jihadi groups.
[13] Al-wala` wal bara` - "Friendship and Distinguishing", a doctrine applied by
radical groups to differentiate and separate between real and false Muslims. True
Islam is defined by a love for Muslims and a hatred for non-Muslims.
[14] Contextualising Islam in Britain: Exploratory Perspectives, pp. 11-12.
[15] Contextualising Islam in Britain: Exploratory Perspectives, pp. 12-13.
[16] Contextualising Islam in Britain: Exploratory Perspectives, p. 65.
[17] Contextualising Islam in Britain: Exploratory Perspectives, p. 14.
[18] Contextualising Islam in Britain: Exploratory Perspectives, pp. 71, 78.
[19] Contextualising Islam in Britain: Exploratory Perspectives, p. 75.
[20] Contextualising Islam in Britain: Exploratory Perspectives, p. 47.
20
[21] ijtihad - the process of individual effort by a jurist at logical deduction on a
legal question, using the Qur`an and hadith as sources. Ijtihad allows fresh
interpretations made from the two sources.
[22]
"France court quashes Islamic Finance measure", Al-Arabiya News
Channel, 15 October 2009.
[23]
"Yemeni Liberal Criticizes Appointment of Dalia Mogahed as Obama`s
Advisor on Islam", MEMRI Special Dispatch, No. 2518, 4 September 2009.
[24] "Criticism in the Arab Press of the US Administration`s Initiative to Reach
Out to ‘Moderates in the Taliban`", MEMRI Special Dispatch, No. 2353, 12 May
2009; "Arab Liberals Eight Years After 9-11: Obama`s Overtures Towards Iran
Extremists Seen as a Sign of Weakness", MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis, No. 551, 29
September 2009.