Too Political?
Oxford scholar Tariq Ramadan has been critical of the manner in which Islam is being studied in the West. Scholarly study of the complexities, the history, its hagiography, and development has taken unfortunate second place to a more questionable search in the study, that of politics. And, one might wonder, why would that be? Since it would also appear that this unfortunate screening of Islam through the prism of its historical and latter-day politics only took root post 9-11...?The phenomenon of violent jihad in a modern world surfeit with Muslim aggrievement against the West, the perception of fundamentalist Muslims that the West is in competition with Islam for world domination is nothing new; but it is now manifested beyond the lunatic fringe. A veneer of respectability for that point of view, and the jihadist mentality it manifests has been granted by the often wholesale-seeming thundering of just that from too many mosques.
Muslims are adamant in their idee fixe that the world of Islam is in a perpetual war with that of Christianity for world dominance. Throw in the disdain expressed from those same arcanely-interpreted versions of the Koran by mullahs, ayatollahs and other clerics, many of whom are considered to be highly respected Koranic experts - of the social and religious corruption in the world of the West, their contempt for Jews, and the all-enveloping "infidel" designation and there's one fine formula for politicizing Islam.
In view of the undeniable fact that the world at large - including countries within the Islamic embrace - view the threat of al-Qaeda and its fascistic, death-engrossed mayhem-loving adherents and affiliates as their foremost concern, how could anyone alert to this ongoing concern possibly be so blase about the very fact that Islam has been politicized internally? The choice has been made by so many Muslims in the greater community of Islam to politicize the agenda. why would Western scholars be expected to overlook that fact?
When Iran's revolution from a largely secular Islamic country to a fervently theocratic one took place, the country's Ayatollah Khomeini, still fresh from exile, poisoned the atmosphere of a purely religious celebration of ascendant triumph by encouraging its young pietistic revolutionaries to wage a war of attrition against western interests by violently invading a foreign embassy and holding its diplomacy-protected staff prisoner. Effectively setting off a gradually-emerging spiral of other such events.
Giving inspiration to a moneyed scion of a grand old Saudi dynasty, himself inducted into political jihadist turmoil in Afghanistan doing Islamist battle to oust Russian invaders. Succoured by the West in their intent, and realizing success, he and his cohorts ushered in the advent of rabidly orthodox, cruelly fundamentalist Taliban. Which religious kleptocracy entertained itself by brutalizing the population, and offering safe haven to al-Qaeda. No politics there?
When the annual pilgrimage to Mecca sees Saudi authorities placed on high alert for attacks against worshippers by followers of al-Qaeda, how is that to be construed other than violent politics in action? When a mosque is bombed in a border town in Pakistan by Taliban insurgents and their supporters, murdering tens, maiming hundreds of worshippers is that a political or a religious statement?
Yet Mr. Ramadan decries what he characterizes as the current academic focus on terrorism. This focus on the somewhat scholarly enthrallment with the struggle against radical movements in Islam is simplistic, according to him, reducing the wealth of Islamic theology toward political ideology. This well-studied but little-understood phenomenon, however, is simply an indication that the world of ideas requires a finer understanding of the situation.
The mass psychosis, the pathology of violent blood-letting associated with what is generally held to be a truly corrupt, completely intellectually and religiously bankrupt interpretation of Islam does most certainly require that brilliant scholarly minds delve more deeply into the connection between geography, resurgent tribalism, religious culture and traditions.
What exactly is there in Islam that appears to predispose too many of its restive young men toward vengeance, violence and bloodlust? Or is that too political a query to respond to...?
Labels: Political Realities, Religion, Terrorism
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, December 22, 2007
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