Before I begin
my post, I want to make it clear that I am not nearly as informed as I would
like to be about the Islam religion and the basis for Muslim beliefs. With that
being said, I will only use the textual support provided in "The Al-Qaeda
Reader" to pose my questions about Islamism.
The parts that struck me most
about “The Al-Qaeda Reader”—aside from the obviously controversial messages
straight from the mind of Bin Laden—were the excerpts from the Qur’an that
seemed to encourage violence similar to those tactics present in the 9/11 attacks.
When we first discussed radical Islamism, I was convinced that the members of al-Qaeda
found violent messages in the Qur’an due to their own unfounded interpretation.
However, some of the quotes provided in the Qur’an seemed pretty
straightforward and certainly did appear to promote violence. As a reference,
here are some of the quotes that I found particularly discomforting:
“You have a good example in
Abraham and those who followed him, for they said to their people, “We disown
you and the idols which you worship besides Allah. We renounce you: enmity and
hate shall reign between us until you believe in Allah alone” (60:4)
“Then, when the sacred months
have passed, slay the idolaters wherever you find them—seize them, besiege them,
and be ready to ambush them” (9:5)
“Fight them until there is no
more tumult or oppression, and all religion belongs to Allah” (8:39)
Although I believe that the
passages speak for themselves, I will elaborate to provide some more clarity to
my point. The first passage includes messages of “enmity and hate” and
threatens that those emotions will not die “until you believe in Allah alone.”
This part stood out to me because I feel Bin Laden’s message reiterates this
mentality—he is willing to fight until we all believe in Allah. Additionally, the
next two passages encourage readers to “seize” “besiege” “ambush” and “fight.”
That message sounds very straightforward; fighting in the name of religion is
not only accepted but encouraged.
I realize these passages may be taken out of context, so I’m cautious to
make any general statement about Islam. However, I want to point out that I’m
not so sure how radical the practice of radical Islamism truly is. While I know
that each person will interpret a holy book in his or her own way, I find it
easy to interpret these specific passages from the Qur’an as ones that
encourage violence in the name of Allah. With that being said, are Bin Laden
and the rest of al-Qaeda simply reading the Qur’an literally? And if that is
the case, is Islam the problem?
Sorry for the length of the post! It usually takes a long explanation for me to get my thoughts straight.
Just for fun, some choice quotes from the Judeo-Christian Bible: http://www.evilbible.com/ which suggest God's sanctioning of genocide, sex slavery and a host of other abominable behaviors.
ReplyDeleteWhich is to say, these texts come from another age, and are a product of a more bloody age (and series of ages, actually).
Any literalist reading of such texts is fraught with peril, therefore.
Dr. Metres, you literally just beat me to my next point. I meant to include this idea in the post, but then I got caught up in my point. I realize that all holy books have some morally questionable material. With that being said, however, I did want to consider if we should call the members of al-Qaeda "radical." Is literalism synonymous with radicalism? And if so, how could we possibly reason with people who refuse to interpret any holy book in any way but direct quotation?
ReplyDeleteDr. Metres, you make a good point, but many of those things mentioned at evilbible seem to be either warnings or accounts of happenings as part of an ancient culture. I can't speak to the validity of the quotations to well either though, they are out of context (as are many of the EB quotes as well, and if you're christian the old testament is basically void any way) Though I do have to say that of the EB quotes none of them are commands as the Qur'an quotes are, again though they're out of context and I'm not familiar with the Qur'an outside of it. Though I wouldn't be surprised if there are stark contrasts in peace and violence. I think it's a part of the schizophrenic way written organized religion works.
ReplyDeleteBecause that went all over the place, I'll sum it up like this. Yes, I think Islam is, at face value, violent; and no, I don't think at face value it's violent because it depends on which face you look at and which values a person believes and respects and most importantly applies to the world around them.
Nick, I like how you excused Christianity of all its violent legacy by calling it part of the Old Testament! We always allow for our own foibles to be extraneous, while others' foibles we call central doctrine. Really, though, the political vision of Christianity and islam are so completely different that it is difficult to compare them. Early Christians thought the world was going to end, so there's no sense of a political plan, an institutional structure, within scripture, except perhaps in Paul's letters--though they, too, are marked by an eschatological ethics. Islam is completely different. It offers itself not simply as a faith, but as a structure of governance. I'm no expert in Islam, but I'd be careful about making too many presumptions about an entire faith from a few quotes. Also, translation is an issue: why would the Qu'ran say "slay" and then "siege," "besiege" and "ambush"...doesn't "slay" cover it? I wonder if "slay" is a poor translation. Also, in this quote, it's not saying believe in "Allah." It's saying believe in "God." This is a translation designed to create distinctions. This quote is saying that Islam is like Judaism insofar as both faiths are monotheistic and against idol worship:
ReplyDelete“You have a good example in Abraham and those who followed him, for they said to their people, “We disown you and the idols which you worship besides Allah. We renounce you: enmity and hate shall reign between us until you believe in Allah alone” (60:4).
Perhaps it's over simplistic, but one general difference I sense between Islam and Christianity is that Islam places a high value on the notion of justice, and that justice should be won by struggle. In this way, it resembles the notion of just war, more than Christ's message of nonresistance.
I'd be curious what Dr. Lauritzen might say, since this is his department more than mine.