Author:
Publication: The Barnabas Fund
Date: September 14, 2001
The terrorist attack on America's
World Trade Centre and the Pentagon last Tuesday has given rise to a media
debate on Islam. Although the perpetrators have not yet been identified,
many commentators have suspected that an Islamic group may be responsible
- hence the debate. This article is a contribution to the debate on the
nature of Islam. We make no assertions whatsoever as to who may have masterminded
last Tuesday's tragic events.
The Muslim prophet Muhammad, the
founder of Islam, was a complex character whose attitudes and opinions
changed and evolved during his lifetime in response to events around him.
It is not surprising to find that Islam is a complex faith, and cannot
be pigeon-holed as "peaceful" or "violent" or under any simple heading.
Muslim leaders around the world
have condemned Tuesday's terrorism. Many leading public figures in the
West have done the same, often going on to express an understanding that
Islam is a peaceable faith, which could never sanction such actions. It
is heart-warming to see such concern for the image, feelings and well-being
of the Muslim community worldwide. We echo this concern and particularly
the concern for Muslim minorities in the West, who feel themselves very
vulnerable to revenge attacks by those who believe Muslims responsible
for the World Trade Centre attack. The threats and intimidation that Muslims
in the US, UK, Australia etc. have reported since Tuesday are inexcusable
and thoroughly contemptible.
"Islam" means "peace" we are often
told by Muslim and non-Muslim alike. Even before Tuesday, British newspapers
and TV had tended to paint a glowing picture of Islam as a religion of
peace, modesty, morality, self-discipline and family values, sadly tainted
by the violence of a few "fundamentalists". Muslim minorities nevertheless
continued to complain of Islamophobia, and felt themselves unjustly portrayed
in the media as terrorists to a man.
The truth lies not so much in the
middle between these two extremes of peace and violence, but manages to
embrace both extremes at the same time. It is true that many individual
Muslims are peace-loving and law-abiding. But it is not true that "peace"
is the main characteristic of faith of Islam. It is not even true that
the word "Islam" means "peace". In fact it means "submission". Islam as
a faith emphasises submission of Muslims to God and, by a logical extension,
the submission of non-Muslims to Muslims.
"Fight and slay the Pagans wherever
ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them
in every stratagem (of war)" says the Qur'an (Surah 9, verse 5). An explanatory
note in the respected translation by A. Yusuf Ali makes clear that this
is not intended metaphorically: "When war becomes inevitable it must be
pursued with vigour . The fighting may take the form of slaughter, or capture,
or siege, or ambush and other stratagems."
There are some Muslims who argue
that this verse need not be interpreted literally any more, but the orthodox
majority hold that the Qur'an is the immutable word of God. It is true
that the Qur'an also contains verses urging tolerance of non-Muslims but
these verses pre-date the more belligerent ones. Islamic scholars have
a simple rule to deal with such contradictions in the Qur'an: the later
verse takes precedence.
Another verse from the Qur'an which
is not often quoted in non-Islamic contexts runs:
"Ye shall be summoned to fight against
a people given to vehement war: then shall you fight or they shall submit."
(Surah 48, verse 16). The meaning here is that the Muslims should fight
until their opponents embrace Islam.
In the early days of Islam, the
faith was indeed spread by the sword. Those who would not embrace Islam
were killed. The same thing is happening today in Indonesia, where at least
8,000 Christians have been forcibly converted to Islam by well-armed Islamic
extremists. Any who refused were killed.
Furthemore, many Christians are
being killed by Muslims without any conditions being offered. Some ten
thousand have been killed in Indonesia in the last two years or so, mostly
by the well-armed Laskar Jihad group who have declared their intention
of eradicating Christianity. In the same time period there have been many
violent incidents in Nigeria in which thousands of Christians have been
killed, their houses and churches destroyed. In Sudan, the Arab Islamic
government has been at war since 1983 with the African peoples of the South,
who are mainly Christians or follow traditional African religions, apparently
intent on killing them all, civilians and military.
Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohamed of the
British-based organisation, Al-Muhajiroun, published on his organisation's
website on 13th September (two days after the World Trade Centre attack)
an interview in which he distinguished between civilian and military targets.
He indicated that military and government entities were legitimate targets
for Muslims to attack. On 31st August the Kuwaiti paper Al-Watan presented
arguments to justify the killing of non-combatants by Muslims. The article
was concerned particularly with Jewish non-combatants, but the thrust of
the argument would make it applicable to any non-Muslims living in a democracy.
Citizens of a democracy have voted for their government and pay taxes to
it, ran the argument, therefore they can be attacked as if they were the
government or military.
Television news has shown us the
grotesque sight of Palestinian Muslims celebrating the World Trade Centre
attack. They are not alone. Similar reports are coming in of grass-roots
Muslim celebrations in other parts of the world. In London a poster appeared
outside Finsbury Park Mosque the day after the attack. It showed the remains
of the World Trade Centre and photos of George W. Bush and Tony Blair.
The text read: "Death to Bush. Death to Blair. Taliban." It is hard to
continue to argue that only "a few extremists" are hostile to the West
and the non-Muslim world when this kind of response is so widespread.
So there are clearly two strands
in contemporary Islam: the peaceable and the war-like. Islam is not one
or the other; it is both at the same time.
In this it differs from Christianity.
While many atrocities have been committed in the name of Christianity,
they are not sanctioned by the teachings of the Christian faith, whose
founder is called "The Prince of Peace" and whose law is summed up as love
for God and others. Atrocities committed in the name of Islam may be deplored
by many individual Muslims, but it cannot be denied that they are justified
by Islamic teaching.
Non-Muslim minorities
Islam also differs from Christianity
in its treatment of those of other faiths. As time went on it was no longer
possible for Muslims to kill all those who refused to accept Islam, so
rules were formulated to govern the treatment of non-Muslim minorities.
These were based not only on the Qur'an but also on traditions about Muhammad's
own words and actions, and formed part of the Shari'ah (Islamic law).
According to the Shari'ah, non-Muslims
living within Muslim societies were to be treated very much as second-class
citizens. Numerous petty laws restricted and humiliated them in their daily
lives at work, at worship, in the lawcourts etc. Those who left Islam to
follow another religion were, according to the Shari'ah, to be killed.
The general attitude of contempt for non-Muslims still exists in many Muslim
countries and they find themselves discriminated against in many ways.
Similarly the ruling that a convert from Islam is deserving of death is
still followed in some countries today e.g. Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia,
Iran. Even where it is illegal to kill converts, most will find themselves
severely harassed and sometimes murdered with little likelihood of punishment
for the murderer.
Christians and other non-Muslims
living in Muslim-majority contexts suffer in a multitude of ways and feel
themselves powerless and voiceless. As Christians in the West it is right
for us to be concerned for minorities in our midst, including Muslims.
It is right for us to seek harmony in society and tolerance for all. It
is right for us to condemn vigilante attacks on innocent Muslims just because
their faith might be shared by the terrorists who destroyed the World Trade
Centre.
But let us not forget our fellow-Christians
around the world who are also suffering innocently. It is unfair and unbiblical
to keep silent about our Christian brothers and sisters in need, just because
we want to spare the feelings of Muslims. Sometimes there seems to be a
conspiracy of silence about the sufferings of Christians. This only adds
to their pain. They are hurt, perplexed, baffled and despairing. They cannot
understand why Christians who have the freedom and power to help them will
not do so. Muslims are not embarrassed to show that they care first and
foremost about their co-religionists. As Christians, who follow a God of
love, can we do less? Our brothers and sisters depend on us.
