These
and other accounts which are on the Muslim mind should be taken into a
serious consideration when we speak about any of the Muslim issues
today, including the issue of Jihad. Although the word Crusade is not a
fully adequate comparison with the word Jihad, but these two words may
help us understand not only the religious context of their meaning but
also the sort of cultural misconceptions between the Muslim World and
the West today.
The word Crusade may mean many good things in the West: “Crusade for
education”, for instance, and the word Jihad may indicate to many good
things in the Muslim World as well: “Jihad against one’s immorality”,
for example. However, the Jihad in the West means only one thing:
“Violence against the West” and the Crusade has only one meaning for
the Muslims: “War against Islam”. No “western” explanation, even the
President George Bush’s apology after he used it in the aftermath of
the 11th of September, can persuade the Muslims that the word Crusade
does not mean “the War against Islam”. And so is the case with the word
Jihad: No Muslim explanation can free the Western audience from the
fear of the Jihad violence. Hence, the question here is not about what
is Jihad or what Jihad is not. The question here is about trust or
mistrust between the two. Unfortunately, the trust between the Muslim
World and the West today is at the lowest level in recent history. I
believe that neither the violence of Jihad nor the aggression of the
military force will regain the lost trust between the Muslim world and
the West.
There cannot be any justification for the violence in the name of
Islam and there cannot be rightful explanation of the killing of
innocent people whether in the wartime or the peacetime by the way of
suicide bombings. The violence (‘unf) was not the practice of the
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and suicide was not his way of
life either. His was the strength of faith! His was the power of the
mind! His was the compassion of heart! His was triumph of life!
The way of life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him), was not suicide in any form or content!
Therefore, the way of "re-Islamization" of the Muslim mind should be
directed towards cooperation for the sake of peace in the world. For,
neither the meek nor the aggressive will inherit the world, but the
cooperative in peace and security of the world!
2. How does Islam define apostasy? Is it permissible for a Muslim to
convert to another faith? How can laws against apostasy and blasphemy
be reconciled with Qur’anic injection of “No compulsion in religion”?
The issue of apostasy is one of those issues where the Muslims
should have realized the historic significance of the Qur’anic
announcement of the following fundamental principles of human freedom
and dignity:
1) There shall be no compulsion in religion.
If it were only for this loud and clear statement of the Qur'an, it
would be enough to appreciate the venture of Islam in human history. In
it a reasonable man recognizes the foundation of religious freedom
which is considered today to be one of the most fundamental values of
our common civilization. Should I remind you that as recently as
September 27, 1480, the Spanish sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella
issued an order to establish in their kingdoms tribunals to judge cases
of “heretical depravity”, to become known as the Spanish Inquisition.
This fact of history Professor Benzion Netanyahu brings to our
attention in this way:
The royal decree explicitly stated that the Inquisition was
instituted to search out and punish converts from Judaism who
transgressed against Christianity by secretly adhering to Jewish
beliefs and performing rites and ceremonies of the Jews.
My intention here is not to embarrass any person or religion, but to
show the significance of the testimony of Stanford Shaw the Jewish
author, who has this to say about a political as well as moral legacy
of Islam:
"Neither the people of the Republic of Turkey nor those of Europe
and America fully realize the extent to which Turkey, and the Ottoman
Empire which preceded it, over the centuries served as major places of
refuge for people suffering from persecution, Muslims and non-Muslims
alike, from the fourteenth century to the present. In many ways the
Turks historically fulfilled the role subsequently taken up by the
United States of America beginning in the late nineteenth century. "
I have quoted this witness not to justify all the actions of the
Ottoman Sultans, but to demonstrate that it was due to the above
mentioned short, but very powerful Qur'anic statement of the seventh
century, that the Muslim scholars developed the concept of the
protection of five fundamental rights of what we call today “human
rights” of each and every person: the right to life (نفس), the right to
religion (دين), the right to freedom (عقل), the right to property (مال)
and the right to dignity (عِرْض).
It is quite regrettable that the modern Muslim intelligentsia has
failed to pick up on this doctrinal and historical foundation of an
Islamic avant-garde for human rights to build up social, political and
moral institutions in the Muslim world that would guarantee the
development of a genuine democratic system.
2) There shall be no priesthood
It was the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) who challenged the
monopoly of the clergy on the spiritual truth and eschatological
privilege by declaring that لا رهبانيّة في الإسلام “There shall be no
priesthood in Islam.” This is not to be understood though that there
shall be no scholars or intellectuals to interpret Islam both as the
transcendental meaning of human life and the immanent manifestation of
human history, but rather it should be taken as a protest against the
manipulation with human destiny in the name of religion in the sense of
mediation between God and man. It is in the light of this protest
against the notion of the clerical domination over the human souls that
we have to appreciate the Prophet Muhammad's historic abolishment of
the social and political privileges of the ancient clerics whose raison
d'être had been based on a vague and doubtful mythological foundation.
Bearing this in mind, is it not paradoxical, to say the least, to think
of Islam as a religion of theocracy. Of course, the religion that came
to cancel the institution of old theocracy cannot be accused of
creating a new one.
Unfortunately, some self-proclaimed Muslim scholars and political
leaders are not good witnesses to this obvious claim because of their
clear tendency to subdue Islam to their narrow-minded view of a wide
range of spiritual, moral as well as political possibilities that the
great religion like Islam holds in its bosom. And, in spite of the fact
that we are constantly reminded in the Holy Qur'an that no one, but God
Almighty, is in charge of the final way to Paradise or to Hell, some
irresponsible people like to play the role of God by designating some
people for the Hell and some others for the Paradise. Fortunately, this
kind of bigotry Islam has successfully survived in the past and it
will, I am sure, survive in the future.
3) There shall be no discrimination
Finally, one of the reasons that I am in full capacity as a Muslim
of the European origin is the universal declaration of equal rights
that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) had delivered at one of
his Ceremonies on the hill of Arafat when he said:
كلكم من آدم و آدم من تراب, لا فضل لعربي علي أعجمي, و لا لأعجمي علي عربي, ولا لأبيض علي أسود و لا لاسود علي ابيض, إلاّ بالتقوي.
"You are all children of Adam, and Adam is from clay. Let there
shall be no superiority of an Arab over a Non-Arab, nor shall be
superiority of a Non-Arab over an Arab, and there shall be no
superiority of a white over a black or a black over a white man, except
by good character."
I don’t know whether the American Baptist minister and the leader of
the civil rights movement Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has been aware of
the above mentioned universal declaration of the Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him), but I do know that we are all in a desperate need
today to listen to those divinely inspired messages. Of course, I am
aware that my power is too frail to be King's voice, but my heart is
full of hope to have Martin Luther King's dreams today as his were
yesterday that my three children will one day live in a world where
they will not be judged by the faith of their heart but by the content
of their character.
I believe that the faith of Islam is too strong in the hearts of
Muslims to be obsessed and disturbed by those who lose their faith. Of
course, the crime of treason should be dealt with in accordance to the
just laws of the land.
3. What are the rights of women in Islam? How does Islam’s view of male-female equality differ from the Western view?
It would be a grave mistake to perceive the female’s status in the
West through the image of Hollywood star women. And equally so, it
would be a grave prejudice to judge Islam’s view of male-female
equality through the image of an illiterate poor woman of Afghanistan.
Unfortunately, the international media is so powerful nowadays in
creating such images that some people cannot but live with the notion
that Islam is against male-female equality while the West is the
champion of women’s rights to be followed everywhere. It is true that
in some part of the Muslim World women are treated badly. However, this
is not because of Islam’s view on women but because of the low culture
which is against the basic teachings of Islam in the first place. Thus,
the western constant complain about the women’s rights in some Muslim
societies is right as far as an overall social injustice in the Muslim
World is concerned, but it is not justified in regard to the Islam’s
historic contribution to the women’s freedom and emancipation.
Furthermore, I dare to claim that the West has no credibility
whatsoever to advise “Islam” how to treat women because it was Islam
which made Adam and Eve equal in quilt as well as equal in repentance.
Thus, it is Islam which taught Eve how to regain her equality before
God and history after Adam’s attempt to put all the blame on her for
the first sin. In addition, it was Islam which saved the innocent girls
from homicide because they were born female.
With all due respect to the western achievements in last centuries
regarding the women’s social rights, I do not see the current status of
women in the West as an exemplary model for women’s equality and
dignity.
In the same way I do not see that the current defensive approach of
some Muslim groups who oppress women for their “protection” is an
Islamic model to be followed.
I hope though that the women around the world will rise to proclaim
their own peaceful submission to the will of God in which is the moral
law of modesty in the sense that there is no women’s freedom to the
extreme of pornography and that there is no women’s protection to the
extent of slavery.
Dr. Mustafa Ceric