Hi all,
This is an attempt to formulate a coherent response to Billy's
comments about Islam, both on-list and off-list. As such, I apologize
for not addressing all of Billy points, and probably dredging up
topics none of you heard about, but hopefully this will give us a
fresh start to a well-worm discussion.
My underlying thesis statement is that Islam *is* deeply flawed -- BUT
most of those flaws are ones it shares to a greater or lesser extent
with other religions. As such, it is essential to understand the
precise nature of each of those flaws in order to effectively address
them.
I contrast this with the strawman position "All religions are
basically good, except Islam which is basically evil" -- which may or
may not caricature of Billy's actual position, though it certainly has
some similarity to many things he's said.
To wit, here are my critiques of Islam. I freely admit these are
superficial and off the top of my head, but the goal is to use this as
a _starting point_ for deeper understanding.
A. Shared Problems
1. Islam is rooted in violence
There is no way around this. Mohammed was a military leader, not just
a spiritual one. That reality is endemic to Islam, and shapes both
their history and their present day approaches to problems.
But, that isn't unique to Islam. In Judaism, Joshua and David were
both military leaders as much as spiritual ones, and Abraham himself
was known for his military prowess. In a similar vein, America (and
modern day Israel) were also born out of violent revolution and
conquest -- not always very pretty, and often genocidal.
That isn't an excuse for Islam, but it is a reminder that we
(Americans, Israelis, and their spiritual/cultural descendants) also
have a violent heritage *we* need to deal with, which should give us
empathy (though NOT sympathy) for the challenge Islam faces.
2. Islam is archaic
Many of the most objectionable characteristics of Islam -- the
treatment of women, fatalism, slavery -- were more or less the "norm"
for human societies back in the 7th century. Islam certainly deserves
blame for institutionalizing and perpetuating those sins rather than
confronting and solving them, but they didn't invent those problems.
We see the same problem (albeit on shorter timeframes) in most
religions traditions -- consider casteism in Hinduism, or bigotry
among southern Christians pre-1950's.
3. Islam is intolerant
Islam is explicitly and violently intolerant of non-monotheistic
faiths (like Billy's godess worshippers) and "heretics". Then again,
so was Judaism, at least if you believe the Hebrew Old Testament.
To a greater or lesser extent, this problem is true of all religions
that make universal truth claims with practical societal consequences
(e.g., all monotheisms). This is why Christianity has also had
periods of deep intolerance and infighting.
It is also worth nothing that our friends the Sikhs -- who mirror many
radical centrist ideas -- also started out as violent, intolerant sect!
4. Islam is inherently political
The bulk of Islamic law presumes that the entire society is made of
Muslims, which naturally leads towards the pursuit of political
dominance (in contrast to Christianity, and diaspora Judaism, which
start from the assumption of minority status). Of course, Islam
shares this characteristic with most forms of paganism and traditional
religion (Egyptian, Greek, etc.) as well as (albeit to a lesser
extent) with Hinduism.
5. Mohammed was a flawed founder
The Quran itself has Mohammed acting outside Islamic law (thought it
excuses him). This certainly taints Islam, and shapes much of their
treatment of women. Then again, many of his behaviors were repeated by
Mormonism's founder Joseph Smith, yet somehow Mormonism is arguably
the most family-friendly religion around today.
To summarize, from this perspective Islam is not so much uniquely
evil, as that it shares the worst characteristics of many other
religions. Billy may not think that much of a difference, but I think
it is essential. All these problems are things other religions share
and struggle with, so Islam's difference from them is *qualitative*
not "quantitative." In addition, we can see that other religious
systems have adapted and mellowed in response to modern, pluralistic
society -- despite sometimes violent resistance! Thus, it isn't *too*
much an exaggeration to say that the virulence of Islam's current
problems are largely due to its "youth" and "cultural isolation", and
to hope that positive interaction with the modern world might improve
its character.
Further, a balance critique should also mention the positive impact of
Islam, the most notable of which is that it created a vibrant,
coherent, long-lived civilization out of a motley collection of
warring tribes. That civilization had its problems (as do they all),
but it is still a rare achievement. Plus, it played a crucial role in
transmitting Greek and Indian learning to our own "Western
Christendom" civilization. In addition, Islam does deserve some
credit for institutionalizing the practice of giving alms (even if
only 1/40th instead of a tithe), and minimizing the ravages of alcohol
(albeit with the drastic measure of enforced abstinence).
All that said, I do think there are some problems unique to Islam that
_do_ present unusual dangers.
B. Islam is excessively, unevenly wealthy
Middle Eastern eIslam has the same problems much of Africa does:
extreme, inequitably-distributed resource wealth. This leads to
unstable societies, religious (or tribal) fanaticism, and corrupt
governments. Worse, the international nature of Islam makes problems
that would be endemically local in African societies into global
pandemics of violence (cf. the Palestinian problem).
C. Inability to Handle Humiliation
Billy is more equipped to comment on this than I, but Islam doesn't
seem to have any real concept of repentance and forgiveness. Jews
have Yom Kippur, Christians have the death and resurrection of Jesus,
Hindus have karma, and Buddhists have detachment. If a Muslim feels
shamed and wronged, it isn't clear to me that they have any social/
religious mechanism for processing that grief other than violent
revenge (or perhaps fatalism, which simply turns that shame inward
rather than processing it).
So in fact, I would accept a claim from Billy that this aspect of
Islam is a) intrinsic, and b) deadly, and arguably c) incurable, and
thus a justification for why Islam needs to be replaced. However, if
that is the specific "defect" we are trying to remedy, then Billy's
proposal of a frontal assault focused on "shaming" Muslims would seem
doomed to failure.
My counter-proposal would instead focus on:
A. Importing "best practices" from other religions to (much as Hindu
reformers did in India after encountering Christianity)
B. Fostering political and economic reform, as is (slowly) happening
in some African countries
C. Finding a non-shaming way to encourage Muslims to reject that core
tenet of Islam (e.g., Sufi spiritualism, Bengali contextualization of
Christianity, revisionist readings of the Koran, whatever).
In short, I believe it is far more effective (albeit labor intensive)
to attack and "destroy" Islam 'in detail' on particular problematic
aspects of their faith, rather than using "brute force" (rhetorical or
otherwise) to destroy it as a whole.
And that's all I have to say about that (for now :-).
-- Ernie P.
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