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| A Time for Renewal Ali Ahmed Minai In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks
of September 11, it has become accepted wisdom among opinion-makers that
"everything has changed". In
the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, it has become
accepted wisdom among opinion-makers that "everything has
changed". Usually, this refers to such things as geopolitical
alignments, economic policy, civil rights, and the political process.
However, from the viewpoint of those professing the Islamic faith, the
events of September 11 represent a crisis of identity as well as a turning
point in the usual sense. As Americans try to make sense of their
sudden and terrible encounter with the reality of global conflict, their
response has spanned the spectrum from thoughtful understanding to reflex
bigotry. Fortunately, the latter response has been limited to isolated
cases, thanks primarily to the responsible approach taken by political
leaders at all levels. However, there have been enough incidents --- and
enough talk on issues such as ethnic profiling --- to send a chill through
the Muslim community in the US. Over the last few weeks, I have heard
numerous dark predictions of the coming "hard times" from Muslim
friends who have lived in the US for years and even decades. I cannot
dismiss their fears as unreasonable, but I do think that they are
premature, and give too little credit to the nature of the American ethos.
Unlike Old World societies with centuries of cultural layering, American
society is a dynamic --- and rather chaotic --- mixture of constantly
changing attitudes. This dynamic aspect imbues it with a certain disorder,
but also with the potential for rapid intellectual evolution, leading to
almost total unpredictability. In the language of physics, one might say
that the system operates in a state of perpetual "criticality",
where almost everything is always possible and the magnitude of
consequences bears no necessary relation to the size of the cause. It is
precisely this notion that is captured in such phrases as "only in
America", "the land of opportunity", and "the American
Dream". I do not think that American Muslims should give up so easily
on the complexity of a society that produced Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln,
Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King. It is a
society manifestly open to fresh understanding and demonstrably fickle in
its commitment to old dogma. The key point about the current crisis is not
that "everything has changed", but that "anything is
possible". It is, therefore, with some optimism that I
note the primary response of America to the "Islamic" aspect of
the current crisis: A dramatic increase of interest in Islam. By all
accounts, translations of the Qur'an and books on Islam are flying off the
shelves at bookstores, and suburbanite baby boomers throughout the land
are receiving their first impressions of a faith that moves a billion
people on this Earth. The question is: What impression will they get? In the days since September 11, it has
become routine for politicians and pundits to proclaim that Islam is a
"religion of peace". This is a welcome development, and it
should do American Muslims a lot of good to have the virtue of their
religion proclaimed loudly by the opinion-makers of this country. However,
it can also do a lot of harm if Islam's newfound prominence in the
American consciousness were to lead to ultimate disillusionment. And the
potential for this disillusionment exists not only due to the work of
authors unfriendly to Islam (e.g., Daniel Pipes), but also because of the
words and deeds of Muslims themselves. In this time of danger and
opportunity, it is imperative that the Muslims of America (and the West in
general) not allow a superficial reading of their faith to become its
default image. But before this can be done, Muslims need to take stock of
their own attitudes. Strictly speaking, it is no more correct to say that Islam is peaceful than to proclaim that it is violent. The texts and traditions on which any faith's practice is based are open to multiple interpretations, and, as these interpretations pile up over the course of history, it becomes almost impossible to assert the existence a unique orthodoxy. A liberal humanist Muslim can find enough in the Islamic texts to justify a
peaceful view of Islam --- and this is being done with great fervor these
days. However, a militant Muslim seeking sanction for violence can also
find plenty in the same sources to proclaim holy war on the world. Islam
is no more inherently violent or peaceful than Catholicism which, at
various times, has found justification for both Torquemada and Mother
Teresa in the same tradition. This is the complexity that must not be
obscured by simplistic attempts to understand Islam, and Muslims must play
a crucial role in this matter. To put it bluntly: It is time for a vocal
and successful reformist movement within Islam, and Muslims living in the
West are in the best position to lead it. While most Muslims believe in a benign ---
even benevolent --- faith, it is an unfortunate historical fact that those
charged with religious leadership among Muslims have often veered towards
more exclusivist and austere interpretations. This is a propensity long
recognized within Muslim societies, and is notably evident in the
classical literary traditions of Persian and Urdu. Far from being revered
figures, the arbiters of official piety --- the cleric (shaykh), the
jurist (faqiih), the preacher (naaseh), the paragon of piety (zaahid), and
the enforcer of morality (muhtasib) --- have long been the subject of
ridicule in the literatures of Iran and Muslim South Asia. That this
attitude has persisted through centuries of changing social climate
indicates that it is an essential part of the Muslim ethos in these
regions --- driven, in part, by the competing gnostic (Sufi) tradition
that tends to be more inclusive. However, the current Islamic synthesis
--- which emerged in the colonial and post-colonial period, but whose
roots go back to medieval arguments between rationalists
(mu'tazila) and traditionalists (asha'ira) --- has acquired a distinctly
orthodox aspect, both in response to and under the influence of Western
modernity. This development has many historical antecedents --- the
policies of India's Mughal rulers, the encounter between Islam and
colonists, the success of Zionism, and the emergence of Wahhabi Saudi
Arabia among others --- but this is not the place to discuss them. The
important point is that a rather regressive, static, and parochial version
of Islam has become prevalent among the intelligentsia of the Muslim
world. While this does not, in itself, generate militancy, it does provide
sanction to exclusivist --- and sometimes even bigoted --- attitudes
adopted by a small militant minority. In combination with the
socioeconomic failure of almost all Muslim nations, this vision of Islam
(which is partly responsible for the failure) has created a pervasive
culture of grievance in the Muslim world. It is a culture that sees all
problems afflicting Muslims as the result of a vast conspiracy ---
variously orchestrated by the "usual suspects": Jews,
Christians, Hindus, ethnic Chinese, even Muslims of other sects. It takes
real but mundane disputes over land, water, language, ethnicity and oil,
and turns them into millennial confrontations. In this apocalyptic
world-view, Osama bin Laden makes perfect sense. Without changing this
mind-set, no amount of military action will rid the world of Islamic
militants. The swamp that must be drained is not in the mountains of
Afghanistan, but in the minds of hundreds of millions of Muslims. It is
time for a new synthesis in Islam, and it can only be done from within by
enlightened, informed, and faithful Muslims. The West, with all its cruise
missiles and smart bombs, can only make things worse in the long run. The crisis of September 11 has brought the
Muslim world to a point of great opportunity. As the rest of the world
discovers Islam, let it discover a progressive, enlightened, and dynamic
faith suitable for the future, rather than an orthodoxy created by
traditionalists still hankering for the past. All Muslims believe that the
words of the Qur'an are eternal, but that is no excuse to freeze the
process of their interpretation. If the words are to provide guidance in
an ever-changing world, they must speak in ever-changing ways. Once again,
the sacred texts must be regarded as the source of principles rather than
a prescription for piety. The famously closed door of interpretation (ijtihad)
must be reopened. Unfortunately, it is difficult to do this in most Muslim
societies with traditional strictures, and previous attempts to do so have
met with limited success. A movement for true reform in Islamic thinking
is more feasible in the West with its guaranteed freedoms and its
provision of space for new ideas. The process must be a careful one, so as
not to injure the basic precepts of the faith. It must be thoughtful, so
that it does not antagonize believing Muslims. It must be based on
rigorous scholarship, so that it carries weight. And it must be daring, so
that it can inspire. The interpretation of Islam can no longer be left to
the most regressive segment of Muslim society. Muslims who believe that
their faith is compatible with progressive humanist ideals must express
themselves --- not as apologists of Islam to the West but as proponents of
new possibilities for Muslims. Those who lament the fact that Islam today wears the face of militancy in the eyes of the world should keep this in mind: When those who are moderate do not speak as loudly as the militants, the militants speak for them too. The only way to reclaim the enlightened aspect of Islam is to pursue it aggressively. Call it extremism in the pursuit of moderation. And that is no vice. Source: Chowk |