Mumbai
A friend today asked me to take a look at an article at Salon.com.
My friend wrote: “The whole
Personally, I’ve seen some pretty clear-cut condemnations of the Mumbai attack from the Islamic community. I know our mosque sent out a press release, for example, but I don’t know how much of that the press has actually picked up.
The question is what authority does anyone recognize that speaks for “moderate” Muslims? Who would we like to hear from? After all, moderates don’t often take to the streets and protest because, well, they’re moderates.
One thing I’ve found from experience over the past few years, this year in particular, is that the mainstream Muslim community is currently largely incapable of effective, organized, political action. I could probably write a book on the reasons why, and since I’m really bored at work right now, maybe I will!
The Islamic world is a collection of decentralized, diverse societies with a strong underlying authority driven culture, and in modern democratic conditions, a common breakdown occurs. There are all these diverse Muslim egos and viewpoints struggling to assert themselves, and the majority generally recognizes that traditions have to adapt to modern society, but unless someone establishes themselves as the “Islamic” authority on the subject, forward momentum is extremely slow.
But then of course, if you give someone the Islamic authority, you haven’t really found a democratic solution. So, you just have to offer what advise you can, let the traditional minded Muslims fight amongst themselves for a while, get discouraged and mutter some verses from the Qur’an, until they tire themselves out. Eventually collective frustration can lead to improvements with a little (mostly indirect) guidance here and there.
It’s a frustratingly slow process, but patience is the only way to go, because the moment you try to inject direct authority, you either have to express that in Islamic terms, which drags you back to square one. Or, you can try to establish an outside authority which just puts you in direct opposition to the core Islamic identity of the culture, and then you have a real fight on your hands! (Just ask any former colonialist…)
Meanwhile, conservative extremist take advantage of the moderate’s power vacuum, claim religious authority for themselves against the opposition, and take hideous, misguided actions in the name of Islam, and again, you’re back at square one.
In the Islamic world, all authority is ultimately derived from God. That’s just the way it is. If you try to change this, again, you are defying the central principles that defines the society and culture. No matter how good a noble the institutions you try to impose are, without the authority of God, there is no Islam and no Muslims. You can’t demand that people give up their core identity and not expect a fight.
However, secular worldly authority can exist within an Islamic framework, and historically it often has. There just has to be a system of checks and balances on religious authority over government and human rights that is established WITHIN the broadly interpretive context of Islam.
This takes time, and democratic solutions only work when they comes from the people. You can help guide the process, but it can’t be imposed. Some resistance to change is always normal, but you have to keep everything in the larger perspective and not inflame the source of rebellion.
As long as we continue to frame the problem of Islamist terrorism in religious terms, the Al-Qaeda types win because we are pitting the potential secular, democratic, political institutions that need to gradually emerge WITHIN the culture against the deeply ingrained tradition of the very authority of Islam itself.
That’s why the smart thing to do is recognize that the terrorists aren’t religious, they’re political. They’re not warriors, jihadists, or martyrs, they’re just criminals. If, on the other hand, we emphasize the Islamic angle, and demand that there be a strong, authoritative, Islamic reaction against them, we’re playing the terrorist’s game, and that is a game that ultimately no one can win.
Posted by admin | Filed in Foreign Policy, Islam