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----- Original Message -----
From: Dr. M.
Farooq
Subject: [NABIC-L] Book Review: The Place of Tolerance of Islam by
Khaled Abou El Fadl Salam and greetings.
Muslims themselves are examining the problems in a
self-critical manner. The Place of Tolerance in Islam is an outstanding
scholarly work in this context. A must reading, especially for
Muslims.
Prof. Khaled Abou el Fadl is a distinguished fellow
in Islamic law at the University of California, Los Angeles,
================================
Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq
THE PLACE OF MUSLIMS riot in Nigeria over the Miss World contest, killing more than 200. Muslims bomb a nightclub in Bali, killing nearly 200. Muslims plot to release poison gas in the London Underground. Muslims attack a Hindu temple in Kashmir, killing 12 and wounding scores. The stories go on and on.
If you think that -- if you even think about thinking that -- reading The Place of Tolerance in Islam is a moral and intellectual duty to yourself. Excellently organized, it delivers a startling thesis: Don't blame Islam for today's hateful, violent Muslims, theological illiterates who don't understand their own religion and constantly distort and vulgarize it. The Place of Tolerance in Islam begins with a taut, scholarly title essay by Khaled Abou El Fadl, a distinguished fellow in Islamic law at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of Rebellion and Violence in Islamic Law. In it he argues that the "essential lesson taught by Islamic history is that extremist groups are ejected from the mainstream of Islam." Following his essay, 11 experts comment briefly, then the author replies. Traditional Islamic jurists, Abou El Fadl writes, "tolerated and even celebrated divergent opinions and schools of thought." But as Muslim states grew centralized and autocratic, Muslim clergy lost their legitimacy, producing "a profound vacuum in religious authority" and "a state of virtual anarchy in modern Islam." As a result, amateurish interpretations of Islam, exemplified by Osama bin Laden's murderous hostility toward non-Muslims (which contravenes the entire thrust of the Koran, according to Abou El Fadl), gained sway over theologically illiterate Muslims angry about being losers in today's globalized world and eager to vent their anger on First World winners. Like many Muslim scholars in the wake of Sept. 11, Abou El Fadl especially skewers Wahhabism, the puritanical revision of Islam propagated by the Saudi monarchy. While Wahhabism claims to be the "straight path" of Islam, it is, suggests Abou El Fadl, an irresponsible form of Islam, forged in the 18th-century slaughter of Muslims and non-Muslims alike. To call it "fundamentalist" is misleading, since it flouts fundamental Islamic truths, distorting Islam by rejecting "any attempt to interpret the divine law historically or contextually." To demonstrate that, Abou El Fadl helpfully discusses relevant Koranic chapter and verse. The Koran, he shows, declares diversity among peoples to be Allah's divine intent and explicitly states that Jews and Christians -- not just Muslims -- may achieve salvation. The Koran opposes forced, Taliban-style conversion of others to Islam. Far from sanctioning "holy war," Abou El Fadl reports, the Koran does not even use the phrase. On the contrary, it entertains the possibility that in a conflict with a non-Muslim, "the Muslim combatant might be the unjust party." There's more eye-opening Koranic "fact" here. The Koran warns Muslims that the injustice of others does not permit them to be unjust in return. Classical Muslim jurists considered guerrillas who attack innocent civilians "corrupters of the earth and criminals," guilty of "especially heinous crimes." Alternate interpretations of the Koran that urge violence against innocents, Abou El Fadl argues, require poorly informed, isolationist readings of a line here, a line there. To show that, he cites the ambiguous verses by which murderous Muslims justify their acts, and their deceitful ignoring of everything Koranic that prohibits their acts. All Koranic injunctions, Abou El Fadl insists, must square with the holy book's "general moral imperatives such as mercy, justice, kindness." He concludes, "If the reader is intolerant, hateful, or oppressive, so will be the interpretation." The 11 reactions to Abou El Fadl's essay range from Milton Viorst's high praise (a "brilliant" explanation of why Muslims are "on the brink of becoming a permanent global underclass") to Abid Ullah Jan's denigration of it as "an attempt to please Islam-bashers." All the commentaries, however, add juice to the subject. For instance, Sohail Hashmi, who teaches international relations at Mount Holyoke College, agrees with Abou El Fadl that politically motivated Koranic interpreters, not the Koran itself, feed the us-against-them mentality of violent Muslims. Tariq Ali, British culture critic, laments that "there was more dissent and skepticism in Islam during the 11th and 12th centuries than there is today." Amina Wadud, professor of Islamic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, judges Muslim women to be just as much victims of misguided Islamic puritanism as non-Muslims. Not everyone, however, lines up with Abou El Fadl. Abid Ullah Jan, a political analyst in Pakistan, blames all debate about Islam on "efforts by the United States and its allies to achieve economic and cultural hegemony by dominating or destroying all opposition." Abou El Fadl's 19-page reply to one and all radiates anger at how extremist vulgarization of the once culturally grand and tolerant Islamic tradition threatens to turn Islam into "an idiosyncracy -- a moral and social oddity that is incapable of finding common ground with the rest of human society." He engages in debate against extremists, he says, "to deny such groups their Islamic banner" and declares his "unwavering conviction that I belong to a great moral humanistic tradition" -- a reminder of the bravery of Arab intellectuals who refuse to endorse self-promoting falsehoods. In his view, the ultimate issue for all Muslims ought to be "the moral integrity of the Islamic tradition." If nothing else, this vibrant collection shows how profoundly Islamic terrorists disgrace their holy book and blaspheme against their Prophet.
Carlin Romano wrote this for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Nabic-L archive: www.groups.com/group/nabic-l. Please avoid personal mails and copying the original mail in your reply. To unsubscribe write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] NABIC or NABIC-L management does not necessarily represent the views of the subscribers. *************************************************************************** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125) {And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33) The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim] The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest".
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