Glenden BrownThe Problem of Islam
A few years ago, the youth group from my congregation participated with the youth group from the mosque on a service project. At the end of the night, the kids returned to HUCC for debriefing. The Muslim youth later complained they felt it was wrong for boys and girls to sit together in the circle; they suggested that such sharing was morally wrong. Such ignorance, such backwards thinking, is taught and to my mind demonstrates everything that is wrong with Islam.
In The End of Faith, Sam Harris dedicates a lengthy chapter to the problem of Islam. He describes the Islamic world as a fringe without a center. Harris seems to see a faith so deluded, so twisted, angry, violent and intolerant as to be utterly beyond any kind of redemption. Harris bolsters his case by printing pages of quotes from the Koran that endorse intolerance and muderous violence. The case against such violence is, by contrast, supported by a paltry handful of passages.
Harris and other writers make the case that Islam is the greatest threat facing the world today. Murderous, suicidal violence is mainstream thought in the Islamic world; approval for that violence is even more widespread.
At a societal level, Islam has utterly failed. Most Islamic nations are economically and politically dysfunctional. The US invasion of Iraq has produced one of the sicker ironies of recent history; Iraq was probably the most secular nation in the Middle East prior to our invasion; after our invasion it has become a madhouse of religious zealotry. The result, of course, has been a brutal reversal of rights for and violence against women (and a flood of anti-gay violence). These outcomes are directly attributable to Islam - not fundamentalist Islam, mainstream Islam.
Muslim anger at the west is rooted in the perception of Muslim humiliation at the hands of the west. Certainly, we westerners have much to answer for - we have allied ourselves with dictators throughout the Muslim world - but we are not solely or even mostly to blame for the dysfunctions of the Islamic world. And while many Muslims claim that Western Culture is destroying their culture, that is a weakness of their society, not ours. At the end of the day, the failures of Muslim nations to modernize their cultures, to diversify their economies, to reform their political systems is a failure of Muslim nations, not the west. But that reality seems only to increase, not decrease Muslim anger.
The US invasion of Iraq was, long term, incredibly stupid; it gave a false ocus to anger in the Middle East. It has, thus far, actually served to further radicalize an already unstable population. It failed to make us even one bit safer. And it failed to address the problem of Islam.
It’s difficult for me to look at Islam and see a faith capable of reformation. But, reform is necessary; at some point, Muslims must learn to live in a religiously diverse world in which theirs is not the only valid faith. Muslims must at some point accept that they are one of many, and not even the first among equals, but jut another one of many. Frankly, if Islam expects to survive, it will have to change, to reform itself.
Such reform is not impossible. It requires Muslims of good conscience actually taking action, refusing to allow themselves to be defined by the violence of the Koran. It means Islam must experience its own enlightenment and learn to read the Koran as something other than literal. It means Islam must learn to be something other than a dark age faith built on war, death, destruction and arrogance.
August 8th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Another excellent post. My experience living in Yemen afforded a close look at some of the inconveniences caused by Islamic customs. For example, the banks were a joke compared to western banks, and they couldn’t pay interest on deposits. Movie theaters were practically nonexistent and videos were censored. Women walked the streets like ghosts, covered in plain black abayas. Then and now, it didn’t look like any changes were coming.
OTOH, if you go to Malaysia and some other non-Arab countries the cultural restrictions seem a lot less onerous.
August 8th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Richard - I’ve long wondered about the difference between Arab and non-Arab Islam. Are the cultural restrictions exactly that - cultural or are they truly part of the faith? I remember seeing a special on PBS in which an American Muslim woman was interviewed and she argued that all the restrictions were cultural and not based on the Koran.
August 8th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I tried to read the Koran, to be honest, and didn’t get very far (how people can memorize the whole thing is beyond my comprehension). From what little I know, there are pronounced cultural differences in how it’s interpreted. For example– the only specific rule for female dress in the Koran says that the bosoms must be covered. Other than that, both men and women are exhorted to dress modestly (”lengthen your garments”).
August 8th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
A well thought out piece. I admit that I sometimes struggle for tolerance towards a religion that seems very misogynist to me.
I have heard it argued that there are moderate Muslims who don’t have the problems of the fundamentalists — but that our actions against Muslim nations destroy any moderate movements by giving way to much fuel to the fire lit by the fundamentalists.
On the other hand, I find that fundamentalist Christians are pretty horrible (violent, sexist, homophobic) as well. The problem is probably more about taking religion to an extreme than the religion itself.
August 8th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Jenni - Many fundamentalist Christians hold attitudes that are every bit as bad as Muslims in their own ways - there is a whole movement in the US claiming we should be ruled by Biblical law, they call for the death penalty for all kinds of things, including sex outside of marriage and being gay.
I don’t wholly buy into the notion that our actions invalidate the moderate positions - yes, our actions help radicalize the fundamentalists, but Muslim moderates seem awfully quiescent to the words and actions of the extremists. I had a pastor who used to say he was tolerant of everything but intolerance.
Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris and other leading atheists argue the problem is religion itself. The extremist versions really just take mainstream faith far more seriously than do moderates and liberals.
August 8th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Muslims moderates are better represented by the Sunnis. If is a comparison is to be made in doctrines, the Shiites are more like the western variety of hard and fast Catholic church, strict interpretationists. The Sunni would be more like our own Protestants, who accept variations of doctrine in the Koran, as less important.
Considering we have destroyed Sunni control of Iraq, we have handed the country over to what are surely religious extremists. Shiites.
If that was the goal, I am still waiting for some reasonable explanation of why. In my view, the situation as it stands, falls under the category of the laws of unintended consequences.
Fundamentalist Christians may hold the same opinions, but are not nearly so bad in fact, as their views of what they wish are completely held in check by a strong constitutional structure based in a persons inalienable rights. We do not have publicly sanctioned stoning of gays and adulterers. Some crazed Christians may want this, but in the end, the bill of rights sets up the framework of legal reality, and when that fails, it would appear that the individual in this country still retains the right to defend themselves from those that would apply such a crazed view of Christianity, with lethal force.
August 9th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Thomas - From little I’ve heard about Sunni Islam, it’s not that much more moderate than Shi’ite Islam.
As far fundamentalist Christians, I’m not entirely confident in the power of our political system to restrain them - on a regular basis we hear about various forms of violence against Planned Parenthood clinics or women’s health centers that provide abortion services.