March 11, 2002
FOUR FACES OF ISLAM:
Before and after the terrorist attack
___By George W. Braswell Jr.
___"After teaching Muslim clergy at the faculty of Islamic theology of the University of Teheran, Iran, during 1968-1974, and after attending preaching and praying events in tens of mosques around the world, and after hours of discussions with Muslims in their homes and mosques and around tables of food and cups of tea, I am in agreement with Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul when he writes: "Islam is not simply a matter of conscience or private belief. It makes imperial demands."
___Religions facilitate the display of many faces among their followers and to outsiders. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack upon the United States, many around the world quickly affirmed the religion Islam as a peaceful one. And so it is. However, one of the faces of Islam is that of warfare.
DOME OF THE ROCK MOSQUE, JERUSALEM
___After the attack, some plead the case that Islam is a religion of freedom. The Islamic holy book, the Quran, states there is no compulsion in religion. Yet the history of Islam is replete with the lack of religious freedom and grave penalties for apostasy.
___ After the attack, there was great publicity of the orthodoxy of Islam and its deep meaning for Muslims in prayer life, in the season of Ramadan fasting, in the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca and in serious commitments to a disciplined way of life to honor their deity, Allah. How true this religious behavior is. And yet there is the face of tens of millions of Muslims who combine their orthodoxy with folk practices in which they seek folk heroes and saints to answer their prayers and to console them in the difficulties of life.
___ After the attack, there was much discussion about comparisons of Islam with Judaism and Christianity. Some insisted that on the essentials of religions, the differences were small. However, in a comparison between the core teachings of Christianity and Islam on matters dealing with the nature and purpose of the life of Jesus Christ and on the idea of salvation, there are some similarities and some wide divergencies. Islam may accept the Virgin Birth of Jesus and consider him a prophet and a messiah; however, it emphatically denies the divinity, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. Thus, it does not affirm the Christian doctrine of salvation.
___Face one: Islam as an aggressive missionary religion
___ Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, founded the first Muslim community (the ummah) in Medina, Saudi Arabia, during the years 622-632 A.D. upon revelations received from Allah in heaven by means of an angel, Gabriel. Muhammad was prophet, judge, leader and commander-in-chief of the community of Muslims. Islam meant submission to the straight path of Allah and to follow Muhammad as the final prophet.
___ Muhammad waged battles against the recalcitrant tribes that would not convert to the teachings and practices of Islam or refused to capitulate to live under its rules and regulations. Jews and Christians were given the special title and status of "People of the Book." If Jews and Christians would not convert, then they were tolerated by the Muslim authorities by paying the poll tax and living under certain restrictions as minorities within the Islamic community.
___ Islam advanced rapidly after Muhammad's death in 632 A.D. to a predominant presence in much of the Middle East, North Africa, Spain and South and Central Asia by 800 A.D. Its missionary advance in recent times has led it to become the second-largest religion, with 1.3 billion followers. Although the heartland of Islam has its origins in the Middle East and the Arabian peninsula, the four largest populations of Muslims are convert peoples to Islam and are non-Arabs and not in the Middle East—Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, representing 43 percent of Muslim peoples. Islam also has become the second-largest religion of Europe and of the United States.
MUSLIM pilgrims travel to Mecca in Saudi Arabia during the Haj.
___ The worldview of Islam classically has been dualistic. It divided the world into the territory of Islam (Dar al-Islam) and the territory of the ignorant or the infidel, and consequently of the enemy and war (Dar al-Harb). The missionary imperative of Islam has been founded on this view that it has the correct view, doctrine, practice, law and way of life that is superlative to any other. Therefore, all peoples should become Muslim or submit to its authority and governance.
___ Contemporary Islam finds many expressions among Muslim nations and peoples. Saudi Arabia still looks to the Quran and the Shariah (law) for its Islamic foundations. Saudi Arabia allows no churches upon its soil and no non-Muslims to enter the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Ayatollah Khomeini founded the Islamic Republic of Iran in his revolution in 1979, dismissing any Christian missionaries in the land and placing restrictions upon the native synagogues and churches. The Islamic Republic of the Sudan was founded on an attempt to apply Islamic laws upon the people. Pakistan, since its inception as a new nation breaking away from India in 1947, has struggled from election to election in terms of how Islamic its constitution and governance would be. The Taliban of Afghanistan implemented a view and practice of Islam that included the destruction of Buddhist monuments and the seclusion of women from the public arena.
___ Since World War II, revolutionary movements in the Levant, in Egypt, in India, in Pakistan and other countries have initiated aggression against their own governments as well as other nations in order to implement their own visions of "ideal Islam" in a political and social order. Names like Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Brotherhood, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hezbollah and many others have been prevalent in portraying Muslim aspirations for a new expression of Islam based on the classical ideas and practices of Prophet Muhammad and the early caliphs.
___ Is Islam a religion of peace and war? Yes it is. The thousands of Muslims I have met in classes, in homes, in mosques and in commerce have been very peaceful people. I could not have met a more hospitable and peaceful people. The very greeting of Muslims is one of peace. However, the religion Islam was born in an ethos of violence. Its history and expansion have witnessed violence. And much of its missionary approach has emphasized either first to convert to Islam, or if not, second to capitulate to its governance with restricted citizenship, or third, to be engaged in war through the personal jihad of a Muslim or through holy war jihad of a Muslim nation or Muslim group.
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___ Prophet Muhammad established his religion in the face of hostility, opposition and violence. In Mecca, his birthplace, with his newfound revelations from Allah, he preached against the polytheism of his kinsmen and other tribes. They threatened his life and the lives of his few followers so that Muhammad fled to Medina. In Medina, he established his Islamic community founded on the revelations that were to be codified in the Quran. Various tribes around Medina, including Jewish tribes, were approached to join the new Muslim "nation." Some acquiesced. Some did not, and Muhammad led his warriors against them. Muhammad led his warriors into 27 battles himself and sent them into 39 other battles. By his death in 632 A.D., he had recaptured Mecca, cleansed it of its polytheistic idols and established it and the Kaba, a holy site, as the direction of prayer five times a day for all Muslims. Also, Muslims were to make their pilgrimage to this holy city.
___ Thus, under the Prophet Muhammad's leadership, the policy of convert, capitulate or have conflict was the pattern in relations to non-Muslims. Jews and Christians were given a special place as "People of the Book," sometimes referred to as Dhimmis. They were not forced to become Muslims; however, they had to pay a poll tax, live as minorities under the Islamic authorities, have liberties of worship in their synagogues and churches under certain restrictions of not proselytizing Muslims, and could observe certain laws relative to their traditional religious traditions.
___ Throughout its history, Islam has faced a challenge in its relations with non-Muslims and with its own Muslims who desired to leave Islam for another religious tradition. The apostasy of Muslims leaving their religion has been dwelt with harshly. Punishments have included banishments from the home and community, beatings, imprisonment and death. Islam in the majority with political and constitutional and police power has exemplified a pattern of the subjugation of non-Muslims. Likewise, it has established policies and practices of great restrictions upon non-Muslims to practice their religions in liberty and freedom.
MECCA jammed with Muslim pilgrims.
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___ Islam is the religion par excellent with prescriptions for religious life. Muslims know exactly what practices they must do, for the Quran tells them. They do not have to wonder or guess what is pleasing to Allah, for they have a daily and monthly and yearly calendar to follow. Rituals and ceremonies are explicitly detailed in the Quran.
___ Six orthodox practices prescribed are confession (shahada), giving (zakat), prayers (salat), fasting (ramadan), pilgrimage (haj), and both offensive and defensive struggle and warfare on behalf of Alllah (jihad). These practices are founded upon a belief in Allah as the God who does not share his nature with anyone or anything, in angels, in prophets with Muhammad being the final prophet, in sacred scriptures with the Quran being the inerrant, infallible and last perfect word from Allah, and in a great judgment for all humankind that results in assignment to either paradise or hell.
___ All Muslims of every race, nation and language must believe and practice these essentials of the religion. All Muslims, whether they are native Arab or not, must become Arabized to the extent that they memorize enough Arabic language to say the formal prayers five times daily, to claim enough of the Arab history of their Prophet Muhammad and its centuries of growth and expansion, and to claim the holy Arab places of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. It is to Mecca that they direct their daily prayers and to which they go on pilgrimage. It is to Medina they go where their prophet is buried. The majority of the Muslims of the world are not Arab; however, they must be deeply influenced and committed to Arab language, history and places.
___ Most Muslims of the world are converts to Islam after the initial advance of the religion by Arab warriors and merchants and missionaries. For example, Indonesia and Iran are convert peoples who brought into their acceptance of Islam traditions of their cultures and religions, as well as other peoples of Africa and Asia. The orthodoxy of Islam has been influenced by traditions such as saint tombs and saint veneration and prayers to saints. These practices have been called folk Islam, in which a blend of orthodoxy and popular religion occurs. A Muslim may say highly formal and structured prayers in the Arabic language five times a day in a mosque led by the imam and also in the same day offer prayers to a saint in the vernacular language voicing concerns of need from the heart. In short, many Muslims pray formally to Allah out of Quranic command and traditional habit, while at the same time they practice an informal religion of voicing needs from the heart to someone who they expect will hear them and respond. It may be said that millions of Muslims practice a folk religion of Islam mixed with magic, superstition, the occult and a variety of Muslim folk heroes and saints.
___ Kenneth Cragg, Christian missiologist and Islamic scholar, has pointed out that although the concept of Allah is deep and complex, the many names of Allah do not describe his essence but only his will and law. Allah is independent of his creation. He gives his law. People are to submit to it. Allah cannot be called father, neither can he share his nature. He is one, sovereign and lord (al-Rabb), while humans are slave servants (Abd) who respond in submission (Islam).
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___ Islam was founded as a religion during the last 10 years of Muhammad's life, between 622 and 632 A.D. Since Islam's inception, relations between Christianity and Islam have been at best lukewarm and at worst have been characterized by ignorance and conflict. Both Christians and Muslims often harp back to the era of the Crusades as the most troublesome of times.
___There are similarities between the two religions. They include belief in one God, angels, prophets, a sacred book, and a worldview and practice of similar ethics and morality with emphasis on prayer and family values. However, there are significant differences within these beliefs and practices.
___ Perhaps the greatest point of divergence between Islam and Christianity is on the belief about the nature and mission of Jesus. The Quran states many positive and significant beliefs about Jesus, which every Muslim must accept because the Quran says so. Jesus is one of the prophets. He is called messiah, word of God, spirit of God and born of the Virgin Mary. The Quran states that Jesus performed miracles and raised someone from the dead. Prophet Muhammad is given none of these titles and descriptions in the Quran.
___ Islam thus calls upon Muslims to honor their prophets, including Jesus, and attributes to Jesus reverential descriptions.
___ Traditions about Jesus outside the Quran have influenced Muslims. They include views of Jesus returning from heaven at judgment time to defeat the antichrist, become a Muslim, kill all swine, break all crosses, marry and have children, and assist Allah in the final judgment day.
___ As much as Islam affirms some significant attributes of Jesus in the Quran, it denies the very beliefs about Jesus upon which Christian faith and practice are founded. The Quran denies the divinity of Jesus, the incarnation of Jesus, the Trinitarian understanding of Jesus, the crucifixion of Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb. In these great denials, Islam has no room in its teachings about God sending his Son into the world because of humanity's sinfulness and making possible the forgiveness of sin with the Son's death on the cross through crucifixion. Nor does it have room for the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb for victory over sin and death. Where Roman historians and the Biblical record and other spokepersons of other world religions acknowledge the fact of the crucifixion, Islam denies it because the Quran says so.
___ Thus, Islam differs with biblical Christianity not only in its understanding and description of Jesus, but also in its own theology of the concept of God, of humanity, of sin, and of salvation. Islam believes humanity's problem is one of basic ignorance. Ignorance can be overcome by proper knowledge and the straight path of the beliefs and strict practices of Islamic law, rituals and ceremonies.
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___ After the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on America, it was learned that the terrorists were Muslims. Information to the public indicated the terrorists acted upon their religious beliefs. United States government officials, representatives of various religions and mass media spokespersons in television, radio and print made statements about the tragic attack and the loss of innocent lives and that justice would prevail and those responsible would be held accountable. Much was said about the peacefulness of the religion Islam and that the terrorists were such a miniscule representation of Muslims peoples.
___ Muslim spokespersons often condemned the attack upon America, saying that Islam was a peaceful religion and that innocent people were never to be attacked in such a way. Some said that although the attack was to be condemned, there were reasons for it, including American foreign policy of favoritism of Israel against the Palestinian peoples and the lack of American support for Muslim peoples and their plights around the world. It was difficult to find any Muslim spokesperson in the mass media to unequivocally condemn the attack and to state that the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad and the traditions (Hadith) emphatically condemned such action.
___ In my study and experience with Islam and with Muslim peoples, there often has been a vast difference between official Islam and popular Islam, between what the Quran and the Hadith state and what Muslims in their homes and classes and at work say. I know peaceful Muslims. I have known angry and agitated and hostile Muslims in their views of what they called western imperialism and colonialism and a corrupted Judaism and Christianity. I have known Muslims who respected me as a Christian and a follower of Jesus (Isa). I have known some Muslims who voiced the superiority of Islam over all other religions and political and cultural systems and indicated that one day it would be triumphant.
___ Thus, Sept. 11 has awakened much of the world to the religion Islam and to the peoples called Muslims. History has taught that Islam is an aggressive religion, having become the second-largest in the world. Examples of Islam around the globe where it has predominance in numbers and political power demonstrate that it has difficulty dealing with the questions of freedom of religion. Tens of millions of Muslims practice some form of folk Islam that deviates from orthodoxy and introduces into their lives a need that official Islam seemingly does not meet. And Christianity and Islam, although neighbors in similarities of religious history and views about Bible figures and Jesus, are vastly dissimilar in their beliefs about the nature and mission of Jesus and about the meaning of sin and salvation. The two religions are worlds apart on matters of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus, and therefore on the nature of sin and its remedy in the salvation offered in Jesus Christ.
___ George W. Braswell Jr. is a distinguished professor of missions and world religions at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.
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