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Akbar Ahmed's " Islam on a collision course?"
By
Mobolaji E. Aluko
Akbar Ahmed: Islam on a collision course?
Friday, 21 March, 2003, 13:42 GMT BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2861721.stm
Akbar Ahmed is an academic and a world-renowned
"ambassador" for Islam. But he has angered many of his fellow Muslims by asking
them to examine why it is that the interpretation of Islam seems to be the
source of the clash of civilisations.
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TRANSCRIPT
"There will be a time when your religion will be
like a hot piece of coal in the palm of your hand; you will not be able to hold
it". The Prophet of Islam was gazing into the future while he talked to his
followers early in the 7th century in Arabia. "Would this mean there would be
very few Muslims?" someone asked. "No," replied the Prophet, "They will be large
in numbers, more than ever before, but powerless like the foam on the ocean
waves."
After September 11, 2001, the prediction of the
Prophet seems to be coming true. Islam has become as hot as a piece of coal for
its followers. Let me give you an example of what has happened in my own family.
One of my relatives was in the second tower of the World Trade Centre on
September 11th. When the first plane struck its target, he rang his father in
New Jersey immediately, to say that something terrible had happened and he was
coming home. He put the phone down, and we never heard from him again. Can you
imagine the horror of my cousin's father? Like hundreds of Muslim families he
suffered the loss of someone in the terrorist attacks. Like hundreds of
thousands of Muslims he felt shocked and disgusted by the carnage. But Muslims
like my relative suffer twice-over, because this carnage was committed in the
name of our religion.
Yet many Muslims now feel themselves in the dock,
accused of belonging to a so-called "terrorist" and "extremist" religion. The
"war on terrorism" President George Bush declared after September 11th threatens
to stretch into the century. But, as a result of incessant attacks by well-known
figures on the Koran, the Prophet, and the customs and traditions of our
religion, for many Muslims it appears to be a war against Islam. For many of us
therefore, on both a global and personal level, this is a time of challenge and
despair.
For better or for worse the 21st century will be
the century of Islam. The events of September 11 saw to that. The hijackers of
the four American planes killed not only thousands of innocent people. Their
terrible act also created one of the greatest paradoxes of the 21st century:
Islam, which sees itself as a religion of peace, is now associated with murder
and mayhem.
Consider Islam today: There are about 1.3 billion
Muslims living in 55 states, and the Muslim population is growing fast. About 25
million Muslims live in the West - in fact, a third of all Muslims live in
non-Muslim states. But Islam is the one world religion which appears to be on a
collision course with its neighbours.
We know that for the first time in history, due to
a unique geopolitical conjunction of factors, Islam is in confrontation with all
of the major world religions: Judaism in the Middle East; Christianity in the
Balkans, Chechnya, Nigeria, Sudan and sporadically in the Philippines and
Indonesia; Hinduism in South Asia; and, after the Taliban blew up the statues in
Bamiyan, Buddhism. The Chinese, whose culture represents an amalgam of the
philosophy of Confucius, Tao and Communist ideology, are also on a collision
course with Islam in China's western province.
Why is it that Islam now appears to be clashing
with so many neighbouring civilisations? Perhaps because we are entering into
what I call a "post-honour" world. I think that the dangerously ambiguous notion
of honour - and the even more dangerous idea of the loss of honour - propels men
to violence. Simply put, global developments have robbed many people of honour.
Rapid global changes are shaking the structures of traditional societies. Groups
are forced to dislocate, or live nearby other groups. In the process of
dislocation they have little patience with the problems of others. They develop
intolerance and express it through anger. And this is not a problem unique to
Islamic countries. No society is immune. Even those states that economists call
"developed" fall back to the notions of honour and revenge in times of crisis.
President Bush himself spoke using the rhetoric of honour after September 11th.
Like a sheriff whose town had been hit by bad guys, he spoke of a great nation
that had been attacked, and the "fitting reply" that he would mete out. He used
words like "dead or alive". He called the enemy "a slithering snake". Bush did
not speak in terms of geopolitics, but in the simple terms of honour and
revenge.
Besides, the traditional Muslim division of the
world has collapsed: What Muslims once saw as the distinction between dar al-harb-
the house of war, land of anarchy and disbelief - and dar al-Islam - the house
of peace or Islam in which they could practice their faith and flourish - is no
longer valid. In the last decades of the 20th century the division has become
largely irrelevant. Muslims can freely practice their faith and flourish in the
United States and elsewhere; meanwhile they have been persecuted in Iraq. After
September 2001, the distinction disappeared altogether. Muslims everywhere felt
under siege. The entire world had become dar al-harb.
The events of September 11th appeared to push the
world toward the idea of the clash of civilizations, but they also conveyed the
urgency of the call for dialogue. We may not like words such as "post-modernism"
and "globalization", but only with the compassionate understanding of other
civilizations, through the development of the scholarship of inclusion, can we
resolve some of the deleterious consequences of globalization. We need to
address the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, and the growing sense
of despair, especially in the latter. The tragic confrontation among the great
faiths taking place in the Balkans, the Middle East, and South Asia, the
mindless cycle of violence, must be checked in this century through the dialogue
of civilization. Long-term work needs to be started to build the confidence of
communities. Serious and urgent rethinking is required by policy-planners and
policy-makers in the corridors of power, not only in Washington, London, Moscow
and Paris but also in Cairo, Islamabad, Kabul, and Tehran.
There has been dialogue in the past. A thousand
years ago in Muslim Spain, Jews, Christians and Muslims lived and worked
together to create a glorious civilization, where libraries, public debate and
learning flourished - and this at a time when the rest of Europe was stuck in
the Dark Ages. And five hundred years ago in India, Akbar the Great ruled over a
territory that encompasses modern-day India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and
Bangladesh. A Muslim who was married to a Hindu princess, his reign ushered in a
remarkable century of tolerance - each week he hosted meetings between leaders
of all the faiths. I have even seen this wisdom in our own time, when last year
the former Archbishop of Canterbury called together a similar meeting of
religious leaders. Representatives from Christian, Jewish, and the Muslim faiths
gathered together to discuss our common goals, and how we could create peace and
harmony in our troubled times.
I suggest a formula for the new millennium: If
justice and compassion flourish - and are seen to flourish - in the Muslim
world, if its rulers are people of integrity, and if Muslims are allowed to
practice their faith with honour, then Islam will be a good neighbour to
non-Muslims living outside its borders. And it will provide a benevolent and
compassionate environment to those living inside them. It will continue to
resist attempts to subvert its identity or dignity. Because resistance can take
the form of a Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan who believed in human
rights and fought within the law, or resistance can take the form of an Osama
bin Laden who fights outside of it.
I hope that one day we embrace this new formula,
so that the whole world can become dar al-Islam - the house of peace.
---------
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Professor Akbar Ahmed is probably the world's best
known scholar on contemporary Islam. He is the former High Commissioner of
Pakistan to Great Britain, and has advised Prince Charles and met with President
George W. Bush on Islam. He is now Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies and
professor of International Relations at American University in Washington, DC.
Dr. Ahmed is the author of many books on
contemporary Islam, including Discovering Islam: Making Sense of Muslim History
and Society, which was the basis of the BBC six-part TV series called Living
Islam. His Postmodernism and Islam: Predicament and Promise was nominated for
the Amalfi Award, and his "Jinnah Quartet," a four-part project on Pakistan's
founding father, M.A. Jinnah, has won numerous international awards.
Professor Ahmed is about to publish "Islam Under
Siege: Living Dangerously in a Post-Honour World" (Polity Press, May 2003)
______________________________________________________________________________
ALUKO COMMENTARY
This quote from the above passage is most apropos:
QUOTE
We know that for the first time in history, due to
a unique geopolitical conjunction of factors, Islam is in confrontation with all
of the major world religions: Judaism in the Middle East; Christianity in the
Balkans, Chechnya, Nigeria, Sudan and sporadically in the Philippines and
Indonesia; Hinduism in South Asia; and, after the Taliban blew up the statues in
Bamiyan, Buddhism. The Chinese, whose culture represents an amalgam of the
philosophy of Confucius, Tao and Communist ideology, are also on a collision
course with Islam in China's western province…………….
Besides, the traditional Muslim division of the
world has collapsed: What Muslims once saw as the distinction between dar al-harb-
the house of war, land of anarchy and disbelief - and dar al-Islam - the house
of peace or Islam in which they could practice their faith and flourish - is no
longer valid. In the last decades of the 20th century the division has become
largely irrelevant. Muslims can freely practice their faith and flourish in the
United States and elsewhere; meanwhile they have been persecuted in Iraq. After
September 2001, the distinction disappeared altogether. Muslims everywhere felt
under siege. The entire world had become dar al-harb.
UNQUOTE
So true, so very true!
In my October 21, 2001 article:
http://www.ngex.com/personalities/voices/sm102101baluko.htm
"Sunday Musings: Trouble in the House of
Usman Dan Bello"
I wrote that:
QUOTE
In Islam, humanity is divided into two groups, the
Umma (Muslims) and the Harbi (non-Muslims). The Umma reside in the "Dar
al-Islam" (the Land of Islam) and the Harbi live in the "Dar al-Harb" (the Land
of Warfare), and the ultimate goal is then to stretch the good boundaries of the
Dar al-Islam over the entire globe, obviously diminishing Dar al-Harb in the
process. Whether this "stretching" can be done only with the Sword of Truth of
the Koran and/or the Sword of Steel remains a political and religious debate.
Thus again built into Islam is a permanent sense of conflict between these two
houses in a manner reminiscent of war, and one can imagine that many of the Kano
rioters must have seen their protestations as taking sides in this particular
US-Afghanistan war in which some members of Dar-al-Harb have brought war on
Dar-al-Islam.
UNQUOTE
And now it is US-Iraq, with once again
“Dar-al-Harb” striking?
That debate continues.
In another one of my pieces, this time largely
given over to another Muslim scholar Dr. M.A. Muqtedar Khan of Adrian College
(Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy), USA:
http://www.amanaonline.com/Articles/art_143.htm
MONDAY QUARTERBACKING: Justice, Jihad
and the Just War
the introduction was as follows:
QUOTE
The September 11 event and the ongoing war in
Afghanistan are causing tremendous public introspection within the Islamic and
Christian Worlds in ways not imaginable - outside cloistered academic
environments and religious communes - even three months ago.
Examples are the two memos below by Dr. M.A.
Muqtedar Khan of Adrian College (Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy),
USA, and addressed to Americans and Muslims in America. Following them are two
pieces that have to do with discussions on the Christian Just War.
Their contents are of enough universal appeal for
me to bring them to the attention of Nigerians in general. This is in light of
the tensions, real and imagined, between Muslims and non-Muslims, particularly
Christians, in our country and the tendency to equate (anti-)Americanism with
(anti-)Christianity and vice-versa. For if Islam means Peace, why are so many
adherents involved in war? And if Christians are expected to turn the other
cheek and forgive their enemies, under what conditions, under the Christian
faith, must this pacifist stance be violated?
UNQUOTE
Those questions, centered around the Just War,
remain pertinent.
Let us pray for religious amity. Let us pray for
Iraq, for the USA, for Nigeria - and for the rest of the world.
Best wishes all.
Bolaji Aluko
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