Islam, Colonialism & Violence
At
present, the facet of Islam that is of greatest concern around the
world to both Muslims and non-Muslims is the nature of the relationship
between Islam and politics, and especially the political use of Islam
by extremist groups. The roots of this trend lie in recent history.
From the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, European powers
asserted control of parts of northern Africa, the Middle East, and
Asia, areas with substantial Muslim populations, many of which had been
under the rule of Muslim leaders. At the end of World War I, European
powers set up protectorates and mandates in states that had been part
of the Ottoman Empire, even though they had promised those states full
independence in exchange for their co-operation with the Allies during
the war. As a result, many Muslim populations felt betrayed, and this
led to a period of instability during which people resorted to
political and armed struggle to achieve full independence for their
nations. (Living Religions, 417)[Three
years after his first revelation] Muhammad was instructed by the
revelations to preach publicly. He was ridiculed and defamed by the
Qurayshites, who operated the Ka’bah as a polytheistic pilgrimage
center and organized profitable trading caravans through Mecca. ...
Finally, according to some accounts, Muhammad and his followers were
banished for three years to a desolate place where they struggled to
survive .... The band of Muslims was asked to return to Mecca, but the
persecution by the Qurayshites continued. ... Pilgrims to Mecca from
Yathrib, an oasis to the north, recognized Muhammad as a prophet. They
invited him to come to their city to help solve its social and
political problems. Still despised by the Qurayshites as a potential
threat, Muhammad and his followers left Mecca secretly. Their move to
Yathrib, later called al-Medina (The City [of the Prophet]), was not
easy. ... This hijrah
(migration) of Muslims from Mecca to Medina took place in 622 CE. ...
The departure of Muslims from Mecca was viewed with hostility and
suspicion by the leaders of Mecca. Their assumption was that Medina had
become a rallying point for enemies of the Meccans who, under
Muhammad’s leadership, would eventually attack and destroy Mecca. To
forestall this, Mecca declared war on Medina, and a period of open
conflict between the two cities followed. ...
In
630 CE the Prophet returned triumphant to Mecca with such a large band
of followers that the Meccans did not resist. Reportedly, only thirty
people were killed in the historic conquest of Mecca. The Ka’bah was
purged of its idols, and from that time it has been the center of
Muslim piety. Acquiescing to Muhammad’s political power and the
Qur’anic warnings about the dire fate of those who tried to thwart
God’s prophets, many Meccans converted to Islam. Muhammad declared a
general amnesty. Contrary to tribal customs of revenge, the Prophet
showed his unusual gentleness by forgiving those who had been his
opponents. (Living Religions, 378-80)
The Spread of Islam
In
the time of Muhammad, Islam combined spiritual and secular power under
one ruler. This tradition, which helped to unify the warring tribes of
the area, was continued under his successors. Islam expanded
phenomenally during the centuries after the Prophet’s death,
contributing to the rise of many great civilizations. The ummah became
a community that spread from Africa to Indonesia. Islam was not usually
spread by the sword. The Qur’an forbids coercion in religion,
recommending instead that Muslims invite others to the Way by their
wisdom, beautiful teaching, and personal example. Islam spread mostly
by personal contacts: trade, attraction to charismatic Sufi saints,
appeals to Muslims from those feeling oppressed by Byzantine and
Persian rule, and unforced conversions. There were some military
battles conducted by Muslims over the centuries, but they were not
necessarily for the purpose of spreading Islam, and many Muslims
believe that wars of aggression violate Muslim principles. Non-Muslim
citizens of newly entered territories were asked to pay a poll tax
entitling them to Muslim defense against enemies and exempting them
from military service. (Living Religions, 401-2)
What is the relationship between Islam and the State?
Does Islam condone violence?
There
have been many situations in recent history in which Muslim leaders ...
have stereotyped the West as a source of evil and moral decline, while
at the same time many people in the West have stereotyped Islam as
advocating and promoting violence, a dynamic exemplified by varied
understandings and misinterpretations of the concept of jihad. Western media accounts of Islam have often mistranslated jihad as “holy war,” thereby suggesting that Muslims are encouraged to wage war against others.
All Muslims are indeed enjoined by the Qur’an to carry on jihad, but it means “striving,” not “holy war.” The Prophet Muhammad is said to have
distinguished between two types of jihad. Of these, he said, the Greater
Jihad is the struggle against one’s lower self. It
is the internal fight between wrong and right, error and truth,
selfishness and
selflessness, hardness of heart and all-embracing love. This inner
struggle to
maintain peaceful equilibrium is then reflected in outer attempts to
keep
society in a state of harmonious order, as the earthly manifestation of
Divine
Justice. The Lesser Jihad is an external effort to protect the Way of
God against the forces of evil. This jihad is the safeguarding of
one’s life, faith, livelihood, honor, and the integrity of the
Muslim
community. The Prophet Muhammad reportedly said that “the preferred jihad is a truth spoken in the presence of a tyrant.”
Jihad is not to be undertaken for personal gain. The Qur’anic
revelations that apparently date from the Medina period when the
faithful were being attacked by Mecca make it clear that believers have
the right to resist oppression:
To those against whom
War is made, permission
Is given (to fight) because
They are wronged; — and verily,
God is most Powerful
For their aid; | (They are) those who have
Been expelled from their homes
In defiance of right
(for no cause) except
That they say, "Our Lord
Is God."
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The Qur’an gives permission to fight back under such circumstances, and Islamic shari’ah gives detailed limitations on the conduct of war and the treatment of captives, to prevent atrocities. (Living Religions, 418)
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Holy Qur’an 29:46
The Qur’an permits the jihad
of violence only under very specific conditions. To fight, people must
have been deprived of their right to live and support themselves. The
action must be undertaken not by individuals but by the collective
wisdom of the Muslim community. Jihadis
are never allowed to harm women, children, or unarmed civilians. They
cannot willfully destroy property. The tactics of terrorists are
therefore not permitted by the Qur’an. In general, relations with people of other religions are to be as tolerant as possible. It is written in the Qur’an:
| Do not argue with the followers of the
earlier revelations otherwise than in a most kindly manner — unless
it be such of them as are bent on evil-doing — and say: We believe
in that which has been bestowed from on high upon us, as well as that
which has been bestowed upon you; for our God and your God is one and
the same, and it is unto Him that we all surrender ourselves. (Living Religions, 424) |
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In terms of the Lesser Jihad, support can be
found in the Qur’an both for a pacifist approach and for active
opposition to unbelievers. The Qur’an
asserts that believers have the responsibility to defend their own
faith as well as to remind unbelievers of the truth of God and of the
necessity of moral behavior. In some passages, Muslims are enjoined
simply to stand firm against aggression. For example,
"fight for
the sake of Allah those that fight against you, but do not be
aggressive.
Allah does not love the aggressors." |
Some Islamic groups,
however, have seen the world situation as so dire that they have
advocated for an understanding of jihad that may involve violent
struggle against those seen as enemies of Islam. (Living Religions, 419)
| Today
many Islamic fundamentalist movements have declared war on their own
people and are trying to transform their states on the model of the
First Islamic state. But the conditions of the seventh century do not
obtain today. A new model of the Islamic state has to be devised. The
dominating civilization of the present day is Western and its models
control the Third World, including the Muslim world. Islamic movements
have revolted against this but their strategies have not been well
thought out. They do not have to dominate Western civilization but
create a parallel which excels it. This will be a long, arduous task
but the struggle has just begun. (Professor Asaf Hussain, Living Religions, 425)
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Islamic Modernism is a movement that has been described as “the first Muslim ideological response to the Western cultural challenge”[1] attempting to reconcile the Islamic faith with modern values such as democracy, civil rights, rationality, equality, and progress.[2] It featured a “critical reexamination of the classical conceptions and methods of jurisprudence” and a new approach to Islamic theology and Quranic exegesis (Tafsir).[1]
A contemporary definition describes it as an “effort to re-read Islam’s
fundamental sources — the Qur’an and the Sunna, (the practice of the
Prophet) — by placing them in their historical context, and then
reinterpreting them, non-literally, in the light of the modern context.”[3]
It was the first of several Islamic movements – including Islamic secularism, Islamism, and Salafism
– that emerged in the middle of the 19th century in reaction to the
rapid changes of the time, especially the perceived onslaught of Western civilization and colonialism on the Muslim world.[2] Founders include Muhammad Abduh, a Sheikh of Al-Azhar University for a brief period before his death in 1905 and Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani.
The early Islamic Modernists (al-Afghani and Muhammad Abdu) used the term “salafiyya”[4] to refer to their attempt at renovation of Islamic thought,[5]
and this “salafiyya movement” is often known in the West as “Islamic
modernism,” although it is very different from what is currently called
the Salafi movement, which generally signifies “ideologies such as Wahhabism”.[2]
However, recent scholarship has disproven the notion that Afghani and
Abduh spearheaded a modernist version of Salafism and used “Salafiyya”
as a slogan. They never claimed the Salafi label.[6]
Since its inception, Islamic Modernism has suffered from co-option of
its original reformism by both secularist rulers and by “the official ulama” whose “task it is to legitimise” rulers’ actions in religious terms.[7]
Islamic Modernism differs from secularism in that it insists on the importance of religious faith in public life, and from Salafism or Islamism in that it embraces contemporary European institutions, social processes, and values.[2] One expression of Islamic Modernism, formulated by Mahathir Mohammed,
is that “only when Islam is interpreted so as to be relevant in a world
which is different from what it was 1400 years ago, can Islam be
regarded as a religion for all ages.”[8] (Wikipedia/Islamic Modernism)
"Independent Reasoning" (ijtihad) @ 3:10-6:00 & "Dogma vs. Faith" @ 12:40-20:00
Does Islam need to be "modernized"?
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As
a young man, Muhammad managed caravans for a beautiful, intelligent,
and wealthy woman named Khadijah. When Muhammad was twenty-five, she
appreciated his good qualities and offered to marry him. Khadijah
became Muhammad’s strongest supporter during the difficult and
discouraging years of his early mission. With
Khadijah’s understanding of his spiritual propensities, Muhammad began
to spend periods of time in solitary retreat. These retreats provided
opportunities for contemplation, away from the world.
When
Muhammad was forty years old, he made a spiritual retreat during the
month called Ramadan ... [and received the first of his revelations
from the angel Gabriel]. Muhammad returned home, deeply shaken and
overwhelmed by the profound experience of communion with God. Khadijah
comforted and encouraged him. ... Muhammad’s fiftieth year, the “Year
of Sorrows,” was the worst of all: He lost his beloved wife Khadijah
and his protective uncle. With his strongest backers gone, persecution
of the Prophet increased. [Living Religions, 377-9]
| Women are given many legal
rights, including the right to own property, to divorce (according to
certain schools of law), to inherit, and to make a will. These rights,
divinely decreed during the time of the Prophet, 1,400 years ago, were
not available to women in the West until the nineteenth
century. (Living Religions, 397) |
[T]o
honor the Qur’anic encouragement of physical modesty to protect
women from being molested, many Muslim women have adopted hijab
(veiling), covering their bodies except for hands, face, and feet, as
they had not done for decades. In Saudi Arabia, where women have been
ordered to be “properly covered” outside their homes, some
wear not only head-to-toe black cloaks but also full veils over their
faces without even slits for their eyes. Some Muslim women assert that
they like dressing more modestly so that men will not stare at them. ... Muslim
women scholars are now carefully re-examining the Qur’an and Hadith to
determine the historical realities and principles of women’s issues
that have long been hidden behind an exclusively male interpretation of
the traditions. African American Muslim and Qur’anic scholar Amina Wadud, for instance, asserts
that the Qur’an is potentially a “world-altering force” that offers
universal moral guidance for all believers, be they male or female:
The
more research I did into the Qur’an, ... the more affirmed I was that in
Islam a female person was intended to be primordially, cosmologically,
eschatologically, spiritually, and morally a full human being, equal to
all who accepted Allah as Lord, Muhammad as Prophet, and Islam as din [religious
way]. ... Conservative thinkers read explicit Qur’anic reforms of
existing historical and cultural practices as the literal and
definitive statement on these practices for all times and places. What
I am calling for is a reading that regards those reforms as
establishing precedent for continual development toward a just social order. (Living Religions, 412-3)
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What is Islamic feminism ...
and which, if any, of the women in this video are "feminists"?
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