Old Gadfly: Gentlemen, explain
to me why the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, is considered an
extremist or radical version of Islam.
IM: Do you doubt this assertion?
Old Gadfly: I consistently hear this
characterization in the news and in casual conversations. When I ask what makes this group extreme or
radical, I typically get an outraged response such as “Islam is a religion of
peace.” When I further pulse an
individual with a question such as, “can you give me authoritative examples to
support the claim?” I am usually met with silence and a disgruntled facial
expression.
IM: I did a key word search of a digital version
of the Qur’an (also called the Koran, as revealed by the Angel Gabriel to Muhammad,
the greatest of all prophets according to Muhammad and his followers) and found
the word “peace” used 49
times.
Old Gadfly: And what did you learn from the context
within which “peace” was used?
IM: Early, in the second chapter, “The
Cow” (2:11) believers of Islam are
instructed: “And when it is said to
them, Do not make mischief in the land, they say: We are but peace-makers.” The mischief-makers are non-believers. Frankly, the word “peace” was used throughout the Qur’an more as a “greeting”
like “good morning.” There is no
explanation as to what the word peace actually means or even how to strive for
it. For example, in “The Distinction” (25.63),
“believers” are told: "And the servants of the
Beneficent God are they who walk on the earth in humbleness, and when the
ignorant address them, they say: Peace.” In other words, this is a greeting from those
who are believers to those who are not.
Old Gadfly: Then, are we to infer that Islamic peace is possible
only among believers of the Islamic Allah?
Yet, look at the turmoil and bloodshed in a region of the world with the
greatest concentration of Islamic believers.
AM: Gadfly, getting back to your question about
ISIS, in relation to the Qur’an and other authoritative texts such as the Hadith,
I can find no contradictions or even contrary notions of what ISIS has
established as an Islamic state.
Old Gadfly: Explain.
AM: I can present many arguments, but let me
offer just a couple. Like IM, I did a
key word search for “punishment” and, unlike the greeting nature of peace used
only 49 times, punishment is used
171 times. For example, in the fifth
chapter, “The Dinner” (5:33), believers are instructed in this manner: “The punishment of those who wage war
against Allah and His apostle and strive to make mischief in the land is only
this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet
should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be
as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a
grievous chastisement.” This
clearly explains the murders and crucifixions carried out by ISIS—acts that are
congruent with Islamic doctrine.
Old Gadfly: How about the women taken captive by ISIS?
AM: This is my second argument. I did another search, this time with the
Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement at the University of Southern California. I looked up “marriage,” then “to slave.” I learned that it is permissible to enslave
and marry captured women, even if the women were already married before capture.
Specifically, in the Qur'an's fourth chapter, “The
Women” (4:24), Islamic believers are instructed: “And all married women except
those whom your right hands possess (this is) Allah's ordinance to you, and
lawful for you are (all women) besides those, provided that you seek (them)
with your property, taking (them) in marriage not committing fornication. Then
as to those whom you profit by, give them their dowries as appointed; and there
is no blame on you about what you mutually agree after what is appointed;
surely Allah is Knowing, Wise.”
Old Gadfly: The Hadith may have clarified what this meant
in real life.
AM: It reinforced it. In “The Book of Marriage (Kitab Al-Nikab),” this particular behavior is further
justified:
Chapter 29: IT IS PERMISSIBLE TO HAVE SEXUAL
INTERCOURSE WITH A CAPTIVE WOMAN AFTER SHE IS PURIFIED (OF MENSES OR DELIVERY)
IN CASE SHE HAS A HUSBAND, HER MARRIAGE IS ABROGATED AFTER SHE BECOMES CAPTIVE
Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (Allah her pleased with
him) reported that at the Battle of Hanain Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon
him) sent an army to Autas and encountered the enemy and fought with them.
Having overcome them and taken them captives, the Companions of Allah's
Messenger (may peace be upon him) seemed to refrain from having intercourse
with captive women because of their husbands being polytheists. Then Allah,
Most High, sent down regarding that:" And women already married, except
those whom your right hands possess (iv. 24)" (i. e. they were lawful for
them when their 'Idda period came to an end).
Old Gadfly: What is meant by “right hands possess”?
AM: It refers to female slavery. In the Qur’an and the Hadith, women slaves
and free men are the natural order of things, ordained by Allah. For example, under Muhammad’s direction,
Muslims executed between 600 and 900 male members of a Jewish tribe known as Banu
Qurayza[1] and took all the women and
children as slaves.[2] In another historical account, Muhammad took
Rayhana as his slave.[3] Rayhana was from the Jewish Banu Nadir tribe,
who had married a man from the Jewish Banu Qurayza tribe before it was
vanquished by Muhammad. Several accounts
report that Muhammad had as many as 13 wives.
IM: Islamic apologists would argue that Leviticus
was similarly harsh with its prescriptions for ritual, legal and moral practices. Yet, Leviticus was written sometime in the
period 538–332 BCE, nearly
a millennium before Muhammad apparently served as the medium for his self-proclaimed
divinely inspired teachings that became the Qur’an. And, in between Leviticus and the verses
known as the Qur’an, the New Testament appeared with a far more coherent and
congruent set of teachings about love and forgiveness, such as the Sermon on the Mount
in the Gospel of Matthew.
Old Gadfly: What does the Qur’an say about terror?
AM: A word search produced five
passages about the relevance of terror.
For example, in the eighth chapter “The Accessions” (8:21), Muhammad
said, “When
your Lord revealed to the angels: I am with you, therefore make firm those who
believe. I will cast terror
into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and
strike off every fingertip of them.”
Old Gadfly: How about war?
AM: The term “war” is used 20
times, but it is obscured by 137 “warning” entries. For example, in the eighth chapter, “The
Accessions” (8:65), The Qur’an states, “O Prophet! urge the believers to war; if there are twenty patient ones
of you they shall overcome two hundred, and if there are a hundred of you they
shall overcome a thousand of those who disbelieve, because they are a people
who do not understand.” This aggressive,
coercive perspective is consistent with the actual meaning of the word Islam,
which means submission.
Old Gadfly: How about jihad?
AM: The
Qur’an does not use the word jihad, per se.
Jihad
is a term that includes “fighting,” “striving,” “struggling,” and “endeavoring.” The index for the Qur’an at the Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement provides 24 instances
of the use of these terms. So,
technically, those engaged in jihad, that is, terrorist acts against the
enemies of Islam—especially Israel and the Western world--are very consistent
with the teachings of Islam. This may
explain why for years now, especially since the loss of over 3,000 innocents on
September 11, 2001 on American soil and many other terrorist activities since
then, there has been no public outrage from Muslim communities, both in the
Middle East and within the various Muslim conclaves embedded within Western
cultures.
Old Gadfly: How about love?
AM: The word “love” is used 83 times. For example, in Chapter 61, “The Ranks” (61:4),
The Qur’an states, “Surely Allah loves
those who fight in His way in ranks as if they were a firm and compact wall.” The prevailing notion, however, does not
include believers loving others; it is used in reference to Allah—whether Allah
loves or not. This is very consistent with
the notion of submission: do as Allah
commands and be loved by Allah, or disobey Allah and, not only lose his love,
but expect to be punished. Compare this
with the liberating notions of the Christian New Testament, exemplified by the
Son of God suffering crucifixion and death to free us from the bondage of sin.
Old Gadfly: Now, let’s tie these concepts from the Qur’an
into the justification of ISIS as an Islamic State. Is there foundational support for such an
entity, or is it a perversion of the Islamic doctrine?
IM: As we know, Iran is an Islamic state—a theocracy
based on Islam and governed by Sharia law.
Iran’s arrangement and the justification for the Islamic State of Iraq
and Syria are based on doctrine published in the Hadith, complementary
authoritative texts (or reports). For
example, "The Book on Government (Kitab Al-Imara)," a translation of Sahih Muslim, Book
20, unambiguously states, “. . . the Islamic State is not an end in itself, but
a means to an end, the end being development of a community of people who stand
up for equity and justice, for rights against wrong or, to phrase it
differently, for the creation of such conditions as would enable the greatest
possible number of human beings to live spiritually, morally and physically in
accordance with the teachings of Islam.”
Islam is intended to be universal.
There is no tolerance for other religions. The late Samuel P. Huntington warned us about
these inevitable dynamics in The Clash of
Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order in the 1990s. His thesis and arguments were roundly
rejected by the progressive, intellectual left.
Old Gadfly: When ISIS first emerged the leaders of this
entity called themselves the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. The Obama Administration insists on calling
the entity the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL. What can we infer from this?
AM: The Levant
primarily referred to Syria-Palestine but has more recently been used to
accommodate a broader area that includes Israel. The notion that the Obama Administration, not
the head of ISIS, modified the original ISIS terminology to ISIL, combined with
the recent deal with Iran, releasing somewhere between $100 and $150 billion
(that can be used to further fund Hamas and Hezbollah), implies to me a
concerted effort to squeeze Jews out of “the Levant.” When the President snubbed the head of state from
Israel on more than one occasion and bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, what
other message could possibly be intended?
IM: Compare the effects of these two religious perspectives: Judeo-Christian principles brought to the
modern world hospitals, universities, western-style law, and a sense of sacredness
for all human life.[4] Islam brought tribal submissiveness to a
people who are mere instruments, imitating what they have been taught through Muhammad
and his acolytes, in order to facilitate the establishment of a world caliphate.
Compare the relative prosperity and peace
of the Western world with the chaos in the Islamic Middle East. The current Muslim diaspora flows out of this
brutal abyss. Sadly, they escape what
Islam has wrought only to spread it elsewhere as loyal servants. Muslims do not assimilate.
AM: The teachings of Islam appear to start with a
worldview similar to that when Leviticus appeared and never modernized. Do you find it ironic that America’s
progressive, secular humanists are more wary of our Judeo-Christian teachings
than they are of modern manifestations of the actual teachings of the Islamic
religion?
IM: There is an old Arab proverb that originated about the same time as Leviticus, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Do American progressives and universal Muslims have this much in common? In other words, if progressives distance themselves from our Judeo-Christian teachings while tolerating and accepting Islam, they also tolerate and accept ISIS, even though ISIS and other believers are totally committed to eliminating nonbelievers.
Old Gadfly: Yet, there are many who do want peace. The dilemma is to what degree they are prepared to evangelize a set of teachings that may be contrary to peace. In his book, Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism, Hayek observed “mind is not a guide but a product of cultural evolution, and is based more on imitation than on insight or reason.” Thus, the fundamental contest here is between imitation and reason. This is our only hope to minimize Huntington’s clash between civilizations.
[1] Alfred Guillaume, The Life of
Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah, (Cambridge, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002),
pp. 461–464.
[2] William Muir, The Life of Mahomet, Volume 3, Chapter 17,
(London, UK: Smith, Elder, & Co.,
1861); p.276
[4] See for example, Thomas E. Woods, How the Catholic Church Built Western
Civilization, (Washington, D.C.:
Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2005).
Wow! You've not only offered your own (and the only rational, in my view) perspective but you've empowered your readers to examine the source materials cited independently. I will be interested to hear if you get blow back. I would really hope that among those who take issue with you, there is at least one who'll engage an intellectually honest debate. It would be fantastic to read, in follow-up, an actual exchange between the Gadfly and some authoritive Islamic apologist.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm pipe-dreaming to assume this philosophy maintained via coercion and force will be defended with rational arguments.
Hmmm...uh oh. I don't think this type of statement is helpful at all to rational discourse.
ReplyDeleteIf we state that ISIS is Islam, can we then also say the Spanish Inquisition is/was Catholicism? In that part of history according to one source 150,000 were brought up on charges, 40,000 Jews were forcibly converted, and 3000 were killed. Oh, and there were similar inquisitions in other western countries...eg the Roman Inquisition where 1500 died and Galileo was spared because he recanted his findings.
Both statements lead away from the rational discourse being sought, contribute little to learning, and certainly don't provide a path to a solution.
I propose the question be modified: Is the Islam of ISIS the same as existed in the "Golden Age of Islam"? Those six centuries of enlightenment and learning were in effect when Europe was in the Dark Ages.
Dear Friend,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the response. I noted that you offered no counterarguments to the specific arguments presented in the article.
On the other hand, you offered some distractions to obfuscate the central arguments. For example, you suggest, “If we state that ISIS is Islam, can we then also say the Spanish Inquisition is/was Catholicism?” Excellent question, but the way it is set up is a not logical. First, you provided no evidence to support the notion that ISIS does not represent the authentic teachings of Islam. Second, the Spanish Inquisition did in fact deviate from the Christian New Testament teachings. The Cardinals of Spain violated these teachings. So, the Spanish Inquisition is an example of a perversion of the teachings for which it supposedly represented. ISIS is not a perversion; the Spanish Inquisition was. Now, if you have examples from the authoritative texts of the Qur’an and the Hadith that indicate ISIS is violating these teachings, please inform us. Otherwise, the assertion remains uncontested: ISIS is Islam.
A further distraction includes the meme, The Golden Age of Islam. What was the “Golden Age of Islam” and if it was so superior to Western Enlightenment, then what happened to the Middle East in the centuries that followed? Yes, some blame the Crusades and the Mongols for disrupting these developments, but an analysis of these dynamics should not distract us from the fundamental teachings of Islam. Following the Golden Age of Islam, how did the Islamic leaders respond? Islamic leaders abandoned independent reasoning for institutionalized imitation (e.g., prayers five times a day). This is the legacy: imitation and not reason.
Do you think the advances of the Golden Age of Islam are attributed the religion of Islam or to the relative cultural freedom to express creativity? And, when we look at the supposed advances, the Golden Age typically talks about such things as algebra, geometry, and so forth. However, many of these concepts emerged well before (Greek, Babylonia BCE) the teachings of Islam came into existence.
This is an important topic. Please let us know where the arguments are incorrect and how we can correct them.
Best,
Gadfly
The comparison offered was not a distraction, it was a challenge to both your hypothesis and your testing of the hypothesis.
DeleteYour title and assertion is "ISIS is Islam". But if that's to be your hypothesis, that's not what you tested. Instead you seem to have chosen to test "Islam is a religion of peace."' That seems to be a logic party foul, to assert one thing and test another.
Then there's a problem with the scope of your testing...you only looked at the Koran. A common fault of Western acculturated folks like us is to assume we can understand followers of Islam solely by looking at the Koran. Way wrong. To really test your assertion of ‘Isis is Islam’ you have to go beyond the Koran, because the actions of Muslims in the Middle East are driven in large part by differences in the teachings, texts, and shariah laws that govern Muslim lives. We forget, or don’t know, that the daily lives, commerce, legal systems, mores, and customs for most Muslims derive from a complicated bibliography with the Koran as the basis. To competently test your assertion you have to get into that context. It’s as if you wanted to understand the lives, commerce, legal system, etc of Americans by just reading the Constitution; it may be the basis for how we live, but by itself it provides little explanation.
And your test methodology. It consisted of word usage and counts in the Koran. Hmmmm, so if an Islamic scholar looked up death as a penalty in the Christian Old Testament they would find it applied to a wide variety of crimes including adultery, worshiping other gods, witchcraft, taking the Lord’s name in vain, cursing a parent, and a woman found not to be a virgin on her wedding night. But you and I know that we don’t apply Old Testament sanctions to our daily lives, for the most part. So too for how the majority of Muslims live and act under the Koran.
Testing errors can lead to bad conclusions. Both your assertion and the hypothesis tested are not proven.
Why did I mention the “Golden Age of Islam”? Because it could provide an educational context that would inform your readers. In your article you stated that under Islam “There is no tolerance for other religions.” Yet from the 8th to 12th centuries Jews and Christians were tolerated and practiced their religions under Islamic rule, while art and science flourished (true in Spain as well under the Moors). The Koran of that time is identical to the Koran that ISIS now swears to uphold violently.
My challenge to you: what has changed?
Dear Anonymous,
DeleteThank you for the very thoughtful response. This conversation is exactly what the Gadfly Corner is all about.
Let me respond to each of your arguments. Here is Part 1 (Points 1-3)
First point: “Your title and assertion is ‘ISIS is Islam.’ . . .”
Response: Yes, the title is an assertion, based on the analysis. The original title started out as “Is ISIS a Deviation from Islam?” After the first draft or two, the analysis supported the central argument that followed the analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. The article begins with a research question, not a hypothesis. There was no intent to conduct inferential statistical analysis; thus, no need for a hypothesis. The research method was qualitative, using content analysis of authoritative texts, the Qur’an and Hadith. Using word searches within the context of surrounding language is a conventional practice in research methodology. For the more extensive content analytical projects, one can use excellent software to derive themes and patterns, such as NUD-IST and Atlas-ti. Hopefully, my two day cursory analysis will motivate a more in-depth research project that incorporates some or all of the cultural elements you mention.
Now, in terms of assertions, there are two kinds: warranted and unwarranted. Warranted assertions are supported by evidence (such as that provided in my article—that is, direct quotations from original sources with attempts to find counterbalancing evidence using terms such as terror and war versus peace and love, etc.). Unwarranted assertions, on the other hand, are claims without supporting evidence. Your assertions may be true; however, there was no evidence to support any of the assertions. For example, the claim that the Spanish Inquisition was an equivalent to ISIS, implies certain conceptions about the Inquisition that have since been challenged by historians/scholars (see for example, Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999] and Edward M. Peters, Inquisition [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989]).
Second point: “Then there's a problem with the scope of your testing...you only looked at the Koran. . . . ”
Response: I looked at the Qur’an and Hadith. I provided direct quotes and links to these authoritative, original sources in answer to the questions posed in the conversation. Yes, I agree Islam incorporates many cultural elements, each worthy of appropriate research and understanding. However, every cultural element links back to the moral authority established in the Qu’ran. In the 21st Century, do the guardians of Islam permit apostasy?
Third point: “And your test methodology. . . .”
Response: There was no “test methodology” applied. If the underlying theory is that ISIS may in fact represent the fundamental teachings of the Qur’an, which is the basis for Islam; then, the exploratory research approach merely sought evidence to support or refute the theory. IM and AM could find no evidence to refute the theory. On the other hand, cited evidence in the conversation lends support to the theory.
Where are you going with the Old Testament? The worst case is Leviticus, dating to around 538–332 BCE, about a thousand years before Muhammed revealed the Qur’an. Yes, today, Jews and Christians do not apply rituals or practices described in portions of the Old Testament. But, in Islamic states, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and now ISIS, Seventh Century Islamic practices are still imposed upon its members. All worldviews deserve apologists—ideally, the arguments or assertions appropriately align with facts and evidence.
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DeleteFourth point: “Testing errors can lead to bad conclusions. Both your assertion and the hypothesis tested are not proven.”
DeleteResponse: Yes. This is true. “Testing errors” is very appropriate when applying inferential statistics to test hypotheses and for determining whether to reject or accept an alternate hypothesis. This was not a quantitative study.
Regarding the statement, “Both your assertion and the hypothesis tested are not proven.” This statement distorts the fundamental research question and the flow of logic (and evidence) that unfolded in response to the question. First, the “assertion” was actually derived from the evidence and can also be considered a conclusion from the analysis. As mentioned earlier, there was no hypothesis. The conversation set out to determine whether ISIS is a deviation from the teachings of Islam. It is true, that the evidence in the conversation did not support a notion that ISIS is a deviation from the teachings of Islam. However, I welcome any evidence to the contrary.
Fifth Point: “Why did I mention the ‘Golden Age of Islam’? . . .”
Response: I am in agreement that a review of the Golden Age of Islam may be informative. Yet, how would even the deepest understanding of this age explain or even apologize for ISIS? Further, many historians would suggest that the expression “The Golden Age of Islam” had little to nothing to do with Islam, per se. According to Woods (2005, cited in the article), “The fact is, however, that the contributions of Muslim scientists typically occurred in spite of Islam rather than because of it. Orthodox Islamic scholars absolutely rejected any conception of the universe that involved consistent physical laws, because the absolute autonomy of Allah could not be restricted by natural laws. Apparent natural laws were nothing more than mere habits, so to speak, of Allah, and might be discontinued at any time” (p. 79; see also Stanley L. Jaki, The Savior of Science [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000] and Stanley L. Jaki, “Myopia about Islam, with an Eye on Chesterbelloc,” The Chesterton Review, 28, p. 500).
You rightly observed that toleration ceased after the 12th Century. How does this relate to ISIS in the 21st Century? Robert Kaplan’s book, The Arabists: The Romance of an American Elite, provides excellent analysis of US missionary and foreign diplomatic experiences in the Middle East and might explain some of the American influence in promoting relative stability between the 18th Century and now.
Last item: “My challenge to you: what has changed?”
Response: I do not know what the question means. However, I really am interested in any evidence to refute the assertion/conclusion that ISIS is Islam.
Please keep the conversations flowing. I look forward to hearing from you again, frequently.
Best,
Gadfly
Nice job explaining this complex topic. Puzzling that seemingly intelligent people label Islam a religion of peace. Presumes a state of unquestioned compliance is the keystone of peace (Sharia Law sets the norm). To embrace that argument/condition one must question the value of individual liberty to a life fulfilled. While the ability to cooperate and socialize is important to a healthy cohort, individual liberty infuses the cohort with new ideas that are the cornerstone of evolution. Islam seeks followers who are uninspired by their own curiosity.
ReplyDeleteSad state when intelligent people refuse to understand this important dynamic. My take, blinded by hate from day one.
Jimmie,
DeleteExcellent observations, especially "While the ability to cooperate and socialize is important to a healthy cohort, individual liberty infuses the cohort with new ideas that are the cornerstone of evolution. Islam seeks followers who are uninspired by their own curiosity."
In the Western world, political correctness promotes and achieves similar effects. C.S. Lewis's book, The Abolition of Man, comes to mind in regard to societies of conditioners and the conditioned.
Best,
Gadfly
I believe Cicero would give the Old Gadfly "two thumbs up"!
ReplyDeleteGadfly,
ReplyDeleteThis is on the right track in an effort to unmask Islam for what it is or should I say one aspect of what it is.
The problem with assessing Islam is that it is whatever you want it to be because its founder just rambled on with no coherent structure.
I like the exegesis of “peace” as well as the sections that show that Islam is basically a religion of submission but then so are sections of the Old Testament. One can make the case that the “law of extinction" in Joshua and Judges is as nasty as the Islamic radicalism. The difference is that we have outgrown that perspective (we being the US; Israel still thinks it can take whatever it wants).
The only weakness I found in the piece was the underlying theme of trying to compare the nice Christians with the nasty Islamists. It’s a given that the New Testament message is in stark contrast to the Qur’an. The need here is to show the Islamic theology is flawed not just that it is not a nice as Christianity
Be well,
John
John,
DeleteThank you for your reaction to the article. With your advanced degree in theology from Princeton, we look forward to your insights and expertise on this important topic. The future of civilization needs thoughtful and moral solutions.
Best,
Gadfly
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ReplyDeleteToday I came across this article by Patrick Buchanan: http://freedomsback.com/pat-buchanan/is-isis-faithful-to-islam/
ReplyDeleteSome still argue that there is a difference between moderate and radical Islamists. Here is a report of a "moderate" Syrian group beheading a boy: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/19/u-s-backed-moderate-rebels-behead-a-child-near-aleppo.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Military%20EBB%207-20-16&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20Military%20-%20Early%20Bird%20Brief.
ReplyDeleteHere is an interesting piece from STRATFOR: https://www.stratfor.com/weekly/murder-men-and-god
ReplyDeleteAn interview with a member of ISIS: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/29/inside-the-head-of-an-isis-true-believer.html
ReplyDelete