World Religion

Islam

Modern Islam

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Introduction

Like all religions, Islam has had to deal with the impact of the modern world.

Some have accommodated while remaining traditional, some have engaged in liberal theologies reminiscent of similar actions in Judaism and Christianity, some have rejected modernity entirely. Some of this rejection has been rather extreme. In recent decades, there has been much migration from traditionally Muslim lands to non-Muslim lands, making the question of how Islam reacts to modernity more acute.

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THE OTTOMANS, WESTERN IMPERIALISM, PAKISTAN

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The Ottoman Empire

About 1300, a Turkish warlord named Osman declared himself an independent ruler in Anatolia.

He conquered much of Anatolia in Asia Minor, and eventually attacked the Byzantine Empire.

They began seizing territory in the Balkans.

By 1362 they took the great city of Adrianople, renamed it Edirne, and Sultan Murad declared a caliphate.

The claim to being caliphs was strengthened when the Ottomans took over the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina.

By 1453 they took the great city of Constantinople, which they renamed Istanbul. The Byzantine Empire was destroyed in the process.

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Hagia Sophia Constantinople was the location of the Hagia Sophia, the greatest church in Eastern Orthodoxy. The church had its icons removed and replaced with Koranic verse in fancy calligraphy, and 4 minarets were added. It became a mosque until the 1920s, when the secular Turkish government of Ataturk turned it into a museum.

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Opponents of the Ottomans Vlad the Impaler of Wallachia, who opposed the Ottomans in the

1460s

Also known as Dracula.

Jan Sobieski, King of Poland, who in 1683 prevented a Turkish army from taking Vienna

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Imperialism

Europe for various reasons, but especially technological superiority, conquered much of the Muslim world. France invaded Egypt, took Algeria in the 1830s, and colonized Algeria’s north.

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Colonial Expansion into Muslim portions of Asia

Russia conquered Muslim regions in Central Asia, while the southern Philippines fell to Spain, Malaysia to Britain, and Indonesia to the Dutch. The Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang Province submitted to Chinese control in the 1600s.

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Fall of the Empire

In 1878, the Empire still controlled much territory in Europe, even after losing a war with Russia

By 1913, after Italy’s attack on Libya and the First Balkan War, Turkey controlled only a small territory in Europe, and part of the Middle East. By the 1920s, following World War I, they controlled only the present state of Turkey.

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End of the Empire In 1914, the Ottomans cast their lot in with the Germans, though many had thought their best chance or keeping the Empire going was an alliance with Britain —but such an alliance just did not happen.

During World War I, British troops (mainly from India) conquered Mesopotamia, and Lawrence of Arabia stirred up Arab resistance to the Turks. At the end of the war, Saudi Arabia and Jordan were formed, with the British directly controlling Palestine and Jordan and the French Lebanon and Syria.

In Turkey, the Sultan was finally overthrown in the early 1920s, and a secular government instituted. The Hagia Sophia became a museum, and the office of Caliph was ended.

To the right—Ataturk, leader of secular Turkey

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Turkish Head Scarves

Head scarves were banned after World War I by Ataturk. In 2013, women were permitted to wear them again. Turkish leader Erdogan wishes to restore Islam’s role in Turkish society, but many oppose him.

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Pakistan As India moved to independence, many Muslims did not want to become a minority in a Hindu-dominated country, so a movement to create a Muslim state arose. Pakistan was created. India still has a sizable Muslim minority. Above: Muhammad Ali Jinnah-Father of Pakistan

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RADICAL ISLAM

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Iran

In mainly Shia Iran, the Shah tried to Westernize. However, he was opposed both by Westernized Iranians who wanted democracy, not the dictatorship the Shah created, as well as by conservative Shi’ites.

In 1979, the Shah was overthrown, and Iran soon became dominated by the conservative Shiites. The new leader of Iran was the Ayatollah Khomeini.* He tried to build an Islamic state.

This resulted in restrictions on women’s dress, and a governmental system where only candidates approved by religious scholars could run for office. After some students kidnapped American diplomats, relations with America totally soured, and the regime would often kidnap Westerners to use as bargaining chips. The diplomats were returned over a year later.

America became known to Iranians as the Great Satan.

*An Ayatollah is a Shiite religious scholar who has achieved a high level of religious learning.

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Wahabiism

In the late 18th century, a reform movement known as Wahhabism developed.

Its leader was Muhammed Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who died in 1792.

He believed that Islam had gone beyond practices found in the Koran, and wanted to restore the purity of the faith.

He disapproved of practices such as the veneration of saints tombs, which he thought was shirk---idolatry.

His followers destroyed many saints tombs and shrines, such as this tomb said to contain the body of Fatima, among others.

Wahabiism established a close relationship with the House of Saud, who eventually ruled Saudi Arabia.

Many schools have been founded by the Wahabis, who are considered fundamentalist, because of their emphasis on the Koran and Sunnah and criticism of later practices.

The Saudi government has financially supported the spread of Wahhabism.

Salafism is a closely related strict form of Islam, and some consider Wahhabism to be a Saudi form of Salafism.

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Muslim Brotherhood and Sayyid Qutb

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in the 1920s in Egypt, and is influential in many countries. Hassan al-Banna organized it. He opposed Western imperialism and the Western values he thought was destroying Islam.

Sayyid Qutb was an important member of the Brotherhood, and an outspoken critic of Western influence. He aimed to revitalize the Islamic world solely through Islamic principles. He was executed by the Egyptian government in 1966, accused of treason, terror, and a plot to kill Gamal Abdel Nasser.

To the right—Qutb on trial

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Qutb’s Argument from his book “Milestones”

• Much of the Muslim world approaches the Qur'an as a means to simply acquire culture and information, to participate in academic discussions and enjoyment. This evades the real purpose, for rather, it should be approached as a means to change society, to remove man from the enslavement of other men to the servitude of God.

• Rather than support rule by a pious few, whether a dictator(s) or democratically elected, Muslims should resist any system where men are in "servitude to other men"—i.e. obey other men—as un-Islamic and a violation of God's sovereignty (Hakamiyya) over all of creation. A truly Islamic polity would have no rulers—not even have theocratic ones—since Muslims would need neither judges nor police to obey divine law. It was what one observer has called "a kind of anarcho-Islam.”

• The way to bring about this freedom was for a revolutionary vanguard (a Leninist term) to fight jahaliyyah* with a twofold approach: preaching, and abolishing the organizations and authorities of the Jahili system by "physical power and Jihad."

• The vanguard movement would grow with preaching and jihad until it formed a truly Islamic community, then spread throughout the Islamic homeland and finally throughout the entire world, attaining leadership of humanity. While some might define jihad "narrowly" as defensive, Islamically-correct Jihad (according to Qutb) was in fact offensive, not defensive.

• Qutb emphasized that this struggle would be anything but easy. True Islam would transform every aspect of society, eliminating everything non-Muslim. True Muslims could look forward to lives of "poverty, difficulty, frustration, torment and sacrifice." Jahili ersatz-Muslims, Jews and Westerners would all fight and conspire against Islam and the elimination of jahiliyyah.

• The influence of Western political concepts on Qutb, especially Marxist-Leninism, is clear

• *Jahaliyyah is "ignorance of divine guidance" or "the state of ignorance of the guidance from God” or "Days of Ignorance”, referring to the “barbaric” condition in which Arabs found themselves in pre- Islamic Arabia.

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Influence of Qutb

Qutb, both his ideology and what many see as his martyrs death, has had a strong influence on Al-Queda and similar groups. His brother taught such noted al-Queda members as Ayman Zawahiri and was also acquainted with Osama bin Laden.

It must be noted that many rejected Qutb and found his scholarship questionable.

Qutb believed that there was no middle ground in what Qutb conceived as a struggle between God and Satan. All Muslims—as he defined them— therefore must take up arms in this fight.

Any Muslim, he argued, who rejects his ideas is just one more nonbeliever worthy of destruction.

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Radical Islam and Terrorism

Most Muslims believe that Allah and the Qur’an do NOT demand terror and jihad, and believe that actions such as hijacking airplanes or blowing yourself up at a crowded concert are not-Islamic—perhaps even Satanic.

Many terrorists seem to have an imperfect or distorted understanding or knowledge of the Koran and their religion. They are disconnected from mosques, Islamic education, and learn from jihadi websites which give what most consider a distorted version of Islam. Often with little prospects, they find purpose and meaning in jihad.

It should be noted that some Islamic scholars, a small minority, interpret the Koran in a way that justifies terror and terrible treatment of women and unbelievers. Most have bad credentials, but some have very good credentials.

But the majority of Muslims despise the methods of terrorists, and believe they violate the Koran and the Sunnah.

Perhaps this is why President Obama, who is not a Muslim, but spent many years in a Muslim country and has great sympathy and empathy for Islam, called the Islamic State—ISIS—non- Islamic. He can not believe that people who follow a religion he respects could do the horrible things ISIS does.

Perhaps 10 percent of the Muslim population believe in radical varieties of Islam—and that is over a hundred million people. But even many of these don’t believe in terror as a means to accomplish their goals.

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Al Queda

Al Queda—the base—was formed in the late 1980s among Arab fighters against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

They were wahabi mainly, and engaged in many terrorist attacks, the most famous being the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. This launched a war on terror, and the United States found itself involved militarily in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of the fight against them.

Al Queda is a network, organized in a “cell” design similar to that which Communists had used.

Their leader and founder Osama bin Laden died in 2011 after a decade-long manhunt.

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ISIS ISIS formed from a split in al-Queda. In the chaos of the Syrian Civil War, its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and proclaimed himself the Caliph. This was is June of 2014. As of Spring 2016, they controlled a large area in Eastern Syria and western Iraq , and parts of Libya and perhaps other areas. Their area of control has constantly shrunk in recent years.

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ISIS atrocities and Boko Haram

ISIS is infamous for its violent actions. Christians, Yazidis, and even Shi’a Muslims are thrown from their homes, the women are sold into slavery, men are beheaded or drowned.

Ancient temples and artwork are destroyed because they are considered idols.

Women are forced to wear Islamic clothes whether they want to or not.

Another notable group is Boko Haram, whose name means “Western Learning is Forbidden”—literally “Books Forbidden”.

They are an African jihadist group which have kidnapped Christian girls and sold them into slavery.

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Most Muslims reject ISIS and similar groups as a perversion of their faith:

….whoever kills a person-unless it is for murder or corruption on earth-it is as if he killed the whole of mankind; and whoever saves it, it is as if he saved the whole of mankind. Koran 5:32

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PROGRESSIVE AND LIBERAL ISLAM

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Progressive and Liberal Muslims

• While fundamentalist and conservative groups get much of the attention in the West, there is also a Liberal movement which parallels in many ways the Liberal Progressive movements in Judaism and Christianity.

• They seek to adapt a traditional religion to liberal, human rights–oriented values, like Reform Judaism does with Judaism.

• LIberal Muslims, like their more orthodox peers, believe in the basic tenets of Islam, such as the Five Pillars, and they consider their views to be fully compatible with Islam.

• Their main differences with more conservative Islamic opinion are twofold. • 1. They differ on how to apply core Islamic values to modern life. • 2. They criticize traditional narratives or even reject them, thus denying any

obligation to follow them while also allowing greater freedom in interpreting Quran regardless of the hadith.

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Generally accepted Liberal Muslim tenets

• The autonomy of the individual in interpreting the Quran and Hadith. More liberal trends include rejecting hadiths completely (such as Quran Alone Muslims) or partially (including hadiths considered authentic by traditionalists).

• A more critical and diverse examination of religious texts, as well as traditional Islamic precedents.

• Complete gender equality in all aspects, including ritual prayer and observance.

• A more open view on modern culture in relation to customs, dress, and common practices. Certain rules on modesty amongst men and women are still self-enforced in response to the Quran's injunction against immodest dress.

• The individual use of ijtihad (interpretation) and fitrah ( the inborn, natural sense of right and wrong; the inner moral compass) is advocated.

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Reconstruction and Ijtihad

• Reconstruction:

• In The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1930) the philosopher Muhammad Iqbal called for a re- examination of the intellectual foundations of Islamic philosophy. The book is a major work of modern Islamic thought and it was a major influence on the scholar Ghulam Ahmed Pervez and the organization Toulu-e-Islam (Resurgence of Islam).

• Ijtihad

• Critical ijtihad is the questioning of traditional interpretations of the Qur'an which reformist Muslims found to be intellectually stifling in the light of modern wisdom and scientific knowledge.

• Most liberal Muslims reject the derivation of Islamic laws from absolute literal readings of single Quranic verses.

• They generally claim a holistic view which takes into account the 7th-century Arabian cultural context and then allows deeper insight into the manner in which the commands of Allah are carried out. Some scholars, however, say that this is a veiled form of "biddah", or innovation, and reject critical evaluation as a whole.

• This questioning is reminiscent of Liberal Judaism, as well as Higher Criticism in Christianity.

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Human Rights

• Moderate Islamic political thought contends that the nurturing of the Muslim identity and the propagation of values such as democracy and human rights are not mutually exclusive, but rather should be promoted together.

• Most liberal Muslims believe that Islam promotes the notion of absolute equality of all humanity, and that it is one of its central concepts.

• Liberal Muslims differ with many of their culturally conservative counterparts in that they believe that all humanity is represented under the umbrella of human rights.

• Many Muslim majority countries have signed international human rights treaties, but many countries with conservative interpretations of Sharia law are often amongst the most repressive countries in the world.

• Muslim liberals often reject traditional interpretations of Islamic law which allow slavery. • They say that slavery opposed Islamic principles which they believe to be based on justice and

equality.

• Some say that verses relating to slavery now can not be applied due to the fact that the world has changed, while others say that those verses are totally misinterpreted and twisted to legitimize slavery.

• Within the framework of justice and equality for all, Muslim liberals include gay rights as a human right.

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Feminism

Liberal Muslims are often critical of traditional Islamic law interpretations which allow men to have many wives, but which do not allow women to have many husbands.

They also do not like the traditional inheritance laws that give daughters less than sons.

It is also accepted by most liberal Muslims that a woman may lead a state, and that women should not be segregated from men in society or mosques.

These views are generally rejected by traditional Muslim scholars.

Some liberal Muslims accept that a woman may lead a mixed group in prayers, despite the established custom for women to pray behind or in a separate space.

Some Muslim feminists are also opposed to the traditional dress requirements for women, claiming that any modest clothing is sufficiently Islamic for both men and women.

Some of the groups, particularly the Quranists, reject hadiths.

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More on Liberal Muslims • Secularism: Some liberal Muslims favor the idea of modern secular democracy with its separation of church and state, thus opposing Islam as a

political movement.

• Sharia: The existence or applicability of Sharia is questioned by some liberals, and they often argue that the Quran was created by God for the particular circumstances of the early Muslim community and that reason must be used to apply it in other contexts.

• Tolerance and non-violence: Liberal Muslims are generally open to interfaith dialogue and conflict resolution with such communities as Jews, Christians, Hindus and the numerous factions within Islam.

• Jihad: Liberal Muslims are more likely to reflect the idea of jihad in terms of the widely accepted "internal spiritual struggle" rather than an "armed struggle". The ideals of non-violence are prevalent in Liberal Muslim ideology and backed by Qu'ranic text; "permission to fight is given only to those who have been oppressed... who have been driven from their homes for saying, 'God is our Lord'" (22:39). Traditional Islamic scholars also agree that jihad is more of the heart than the sword.

• Secular Scholarship: The often secular outlook of Muslim liberals makes them more disposed to trust mainstream secular scholarship.

• The journalist Max Rodenbeck has noted several challenges to Islamic "reform"—i.e. accommodation with the Enlightenment, reason and science, the separation of religion and politics—that the other two Abrahamic faiths did not have to grapple with:

• whereas Christian and Jewish reform evolved over centuries, in relatively organic and self-generated—albeit often bloody—fashion, the challenge to Islam of such concepts as empirical reasoning, the nation-state, the theory of evolution, and individualism arrived all in a heap and all too often at the point of a gun.  

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WOMEN IN ISLAM AND MUSLIMS IN AMERICA

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Women in Islam

The Arabs and most of the societies that adopted Islam—for that matter, most human societies period—were patriarchal, and this was sometimes justified in terms of religion.

For example, the Quran enjoins men and women to dress modestly, but modesty means different things in different parts of the world and at different times. Hence, women in some cultures had to wear full burkas, while in other parts of the world, pants and long-sleeved shirts with a scarf are fine.

The Koran gave women many rights, and was a rather liberal document by the standards of the seventh century.

For example, women could divorce their husbands, could inherit and hold property, and it remained theirs even after marriage (English women did not have this right until the 1870s), and they had the right to refuse arranged marriages.

Also, female infanticide was prohibited by the Qur’an.

Men and women are equals in the eyes of God and will be judged on their own accord:

Muslim men and Muslim women, believing men and believing women, obedient men and obedient women, truthful men and truthful women, patient men and patient women, humble men and humble women, charitable men and charitable women, fasting men and fasting women, men who guard their chastity and women who guard, men who remember Allah frequently and women who remember-Allah has prepared for them a pardon, and an immense reward. Koran 33:35

Women, like men, are to live a righteous life and seek education. Women may work outside the home, and all she earns is her property.

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Women in Islam II

Despite the equality of men and women in the eyes of Allah, groups such as the Taliban deny women the right to work outside the home or be educated.

Malia was shot and nearly killed because she dared to seek an education.

In some parts of the Muslim world, such as Saudi Arabia, women can not leave the home without a male escort, usually a relative.

Many, however, find such restrictions on women unlawful.

While some Muslim cultures condone “honor killings”—killing a woman for shaming the family by dating or some other violation—these are NOT condoned by Islam the religion.

Some Muslim women dress modestly of their own accord, perhaps as a rebuke to Western values, or because they feel someone not their husband should not see their beauty.

In recent years there have been Muslim feminists. For example, Huda Sha’rawi removed her face veil in public in the 1920s, and encouraged Muslim women to remove the veils and head scarfs.

In recent years, as the more conservative elements have become prominent, some women who did not wear the hijab have taken to wearing it.

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Women’s Clothing Many non-Muslims find Islam a rather constraining religion, with its restrictions on much artistic expression, eating, and clothing, etc.

Women’s clothing has come in for much criticism. Islam requires modest dress, but that requirement has been interpreted differently in different cultures. Arguably, some—not all—Islamic women’s clothing is far more free than some clothing that has been commonly

worn in Western cultures.

Modern Muslim fashions Victorian era, circa 1860

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Sports Gear

Many Muslims wish to not violate their religion while engaging in the activities of modern life. This has caused some difficulties in sports or just going to the pool or beach, as the clothing usually worn for these activities is often immodest by Islamic standards. The burkini, created in the early 2000s, satisfies

Islamic requirements, including covering the head, and clothing has been designed for other sports that fits the requirements and allows more freedom of movement.

Not all conservative Muslims agree that these clothing are halal.

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Nation of Islam: The Black Muslims

Among the many slaves brought to America, many (ten to 30 percent) were Muslims, but most lost their religion because of an inability to practice, being forbidden to practice, or forced or voluntary conversion to Christianity.

In the 20th century, many African-Americans rejected Christianity as the religion their ancestors had been forced into. Some believed their ancestors were Muslims. Today, half of US Muslims are African-Americans.

Wali D. Fard in the 1930s founded the Nation of Islam—often called the Black Muslims. This group, while they have some features in common with Islam, is not considered an orthodox Muslim group.

Fard is considered the incarnation of God, with Elijah Muhammed (right) as his prophet.

Needless to say, these are not orthodox Muslim beliefs. After 1975, the Nation of Islam split. One kept to the tenets of the Nation, while the other group became more Sunni.

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Muslims in America There are approximately 2.6 million Muslims in the United States, and close to 1 million live in Canada. Both groups are growing rapidly through natural increase, conversion, and immigration. The largest US population is in Dearborn Michigan, near Detroit. Many American Muslims are immigrants from South Asia or the Middle East.

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Final Thoughts

The prominence of radical Islam has caused problems for moderate Muslims, especially a problem of perception.

Most Americans know little about Islam beyond the fact that terrible terrorist acts are committed by Muslim radicals.

Suspicion, fear, and hostility by many— not all--towards all Muslims has been the result, and it is often directed against moderate Muslims.

It is hoped that classes such as this can help give people a more balanced view of Islam.  

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