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ISLAM: A Misunderstood Religion

Islam arose among the Arabs who inhabited the arid, millionsquare-mile peninsula that today includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen, North and South. The Arabs are Semitic people, which means that their language is akin to those of the Hebrews and of other peoples of the ancient Near East. At the beginning of the seventh century, their desert homeland, which looms so large on a map of the area, had been somewhat bypassed by the influential currents of world civilization. However Arabian products spices, perfumes, hides, livestock and dates were in demand. But the centers of world power flourished elsewhere. Among these, two superpowers influenced the history of early Islam. To the north and west lay the Byzantine Empire, with its Greek-speaking capital at Constantinople, where Europe and Asia almost touch. To the northeast lay the Persian Empire. These giants were engaged in a constant struggle for power and, as superpowers do, both sought to gain the loyalty and support of the Arabs, by fair means or foul. The Arabs remained apart from events of world politics in part because they were completely disunited socially and politically. Many lived as nomads, and the whole population was organized loosely into tribes, or extended family groupings. They had no centralized authority beyond that agreed upon by the family or by confederations of families.

So, although individuals felt intense loyalty to their tribe, beyond that intimate tie of kinship was little or no sense of social cohesion. Strife between tribes was constant. Each group acted as a law unto itself. In addition to the nomads, with their flocks and herds always on the move, other Arab groups practiced agriculture in fixed locations, and in a few cities artisans and traders followed a way of life much like that in other parts of the ancient world. It was in one of the busiest and largest of these Arabian cities that the story of Islam began. Mecca was a commercial and religious center in the western sector of the Arabian Peninsula, not far from the Red Sea. The Arabs worship many gods (polytheists), and Mecca was a place of pilgrimage, the site of one of their most revered sanctuaries. This shrine, called the Kaba, was a cube-shaped structure built around a mass of meteorite material that had been held in veneration for centuries. Looking back at this early period when the Arabs worshipped idols and spirits, Muslims call it the time of ignorance, because in general, people had no knowledge of the one true God and no scripture to guide them. Besides the polytheistic worshipers, there were also some Christians living in the Arabian Peninsula. The Greek Orthodox Church was the dominant form of Christianity by the virtue of its identification with the political power of Byzantium. But in areas adjacent to Arabia, the Monophysite Churches and the Nestorians, two branches of

Christianity issuing from a dispute over the divine and human natures of Jesus Christ, challenged Orthodox Christianity. Christians largely inhabited one commercial center, Najran, South of Mecca. There were Jews in Arabia, too farmers, artisans and merchants who had identified almost completely with Arabian life. They gave their children Arab names and adopted the social organization and customs of the area. Many of them were Arabs who had left their polytheistic faith to adopt the Jewish belief in one God. Zoroastrianism, from Persia, was yet another religious influence in seventh-century Arabia. The birth of Islam considerably changed political and social conditions for the Arabs. Tribes united in loyalty to the new faith and organized their lives around the code of behavior that Islam prescribed. All political and economic activities were integrated and given direction by the faith. This new unity set the stage for Islam to become a world religion. The Muslims not the Arabs alone, but the many people who joined the new community of faith were soon to become a superpower themselves. THE RISE OF ISLAM Muhammad the Prophet Islam did not just appear full-blown as a religion and way of life. The catalyst of all these developments was a prophet. In the view of Muslims, God revealed the new faith, little by little, to his servant,

Muhammad. And that faith immersed Muhammad in a highly dramatic series of events covering a span of twenty-three year. Muhammad was born in c. 570 in Mecca, a trading city in Western Arabia inhabited by the tribe of Quraysh. His father died just before his birth, so his grandfather, and later his uncle, raised the boy. We know nothing about any formal education for Muhammad. He took up trade, beginning work at the age of 24 for a rich woman named Khadija. His employer was a widow, twenty years older than he, but in spite of the disparity in their ages, she was attracted by the qualities of Muhammads personality that she proposed marriage to him. His acceptance, at the age of 25, led to a long and happy union that lasted another quarter-century, until Khadija died. About the age of forty he had an experience that changed his life. In a mountain cave to which he had gone for devotional purposes he was surprised by an apparition saying, Muhammad, you are Gods messenger. He panicked and was considering throwing himself from the mountain when the speaker identified himself: Muhammad, I am Gabriel and you are the messenger of God. Recite! What shall I recite? he replied in despair, whereupon Gabriel squeezed him until he almost choked and ordered him to recite the beginning of what became chapter (sura) 96 of the Quran. At first these experiences troubled him greatly, causing him to fear for himself and to despair. On hearing about his revelations, Khadija and her cousin, Waraqa, a

Christian, comforted and encouraged Muhammad. After sharing what had happened to him with others of his closely knit family, he began to gather a little group of sympathetic listeners about him. As he did so, other revelations came in the form of short messages, which he transmitted to his companions. Muhammad began to preach, first to friends and relations and then more publicly, gaining some converts but antagonizing most of the pagan Meccans with his monotheistic message. Perhaps the main factor in this rejection was that Muhammad was disturbing the established order of religious and commercial life. Urban Mecca bore within it the seeds of social disintegration, a situation common to commercial cities where family ties were giving way to economic competition and social responsibility losing out to the individuals advancement. Muhammads call to socially responsible behavior based on faith in a living, Creator God and a life lived in the immediate awareness of divine judgment clashed with the Meccans sense of priorities and propriety. The pagan Meccan made things so difficult for his followers that he had to send some to Ethiopia and look for a place in Arabia where they could establish their own community. After the year 619, the position of Muhammad and his followers in Mecca became more and more difficult. Khadija died as did

Muhammads beloved uncle, Abu Talib. Muhammads family became less and less supportive of him. Eventually he encountered some Arab

tribesmen from Yathrib, an agricultural settlement some 250 miles north of Mecca with a mixed Jewish and Arab population, long torns by tribal conflicts. This was the home area of Muhammads mothers family. Familiar with monotheism form their Jewish neighbors, these tribesmen found Muhammads message intelligible and invited him to Yasthrib in the hope that he might restore order to the oasis. In 622 after protracted negotiations, Muhammad and his followers left Mecca. This invitation set off a notable series of events that changed the center of Muslim activity from Mecca to Yathrib, later known as Medina. These events make up what Muslims call the emigration, or hijra, and are considered the turning point in the early history of Islam. Muslims begin their calendar at this point, so that the year of 622 corresponds to the first year of the Islamic era. About seventy Muslims made the journey north to take up residence in Medina. Their Prophet became the leader of a disparate, scattered population that had been weakened by years of fighting between clans and factions, and he undertook to mold a viable community based on the faith of Islam. In Mecca they had lived by the same rules and as members of the same tribes as the pagans, but now they are a community to the exclusion of other people, Muhammad declared in a document he drew up shortly after his emigration. In that document, commonly known as the Constitution of Medina, he regulated relations between the component parts of the new

community called umma and its relations with outsiders, laying down that whatever you may disagree about shall be referred to God and Muhammad. The inhabitants of Medina were for the most part non-nomadic farmers, but the introduction of Meccan city dwellers into the area increased the potential for economic development. Most Medinans rallied to the side of their new leader, many in sincere faith and others merely from self-interest. However, a large number of the Jewish people in Medina refused to cooperated with the Muslims and actually plotted to overthrow Muhammad. Their opposition was one of the first serious obstacles the Muslims encountered in their new setting. But some of the Jews in the smaller clans were friendly and enhanced Muhammads knowledge of Jewish scripture. Initially,

Muhammads relations with the Jews of Medina were close: the Muslims prayed in the direction of Jerusalem, and the Jews formed an umma together with or alongside that of the believers in the Constitution of Medina, which stipulated that they were to fight alongside the believers too. But in 624 he introduced some new to Islamic practice. During the salat prayer, he told the congregation to turn around, so that they prayed in the direction of Mecca rather than Jerusalem. This change of qiblah (prayer direction) was a declaration of independence and endowing Islam with its own central shrine, the Kaba. Since pagans

controlled Mecca, Muhammad had to conquer it, and his attempts to do so were accompanied by expulsions of the Jews. It should be mentioned that according to a recent study of Islam it was argued that Muhammad conflict with the Jewish tribes in Medina was not religious but political. (quote Karen Armstrong) In 627 when the Meccans attacked Medina, Muhammad

destroyed the last Jewish tribe, the men being massacred and the women and children enslaved. The Muslims were now ready for Mecca. The Meccans in 628 entered into a truce with Muhammad and in 630 they voluntarily surrendered. Military victories and defeats although painful and violent, were occasions for the community to understand and express it identity. GOLDEN ERA OF ISLAMDON Emergence of the Caliphate Historical factors have played a key role in the development of Muslim countries around the world. Almost all Muslim nations of today can trace their history back to one of the great Muslim empires stemming from the first Muslim ummah founded by Muhammad in Medina in the 7th century. The example of Medina showed the integral relationship between the state and the religion. This example

influenced the development of the ummah during the years following Muhammads death and continues to be the standard today. The state of Medina was led by the Prophet himself and received its guidance

from divine revelation.

Muhammad served in the state as the chief

executive, as well as the legislative and the judicial authority. He was the Commander-in-Chief of the military and oversaw the total affairs of the state, foreign and domestic. Muhammads death precipitated a crisis in succession and leadership. The majority believed that the Prophet had not designated a successor and accepted the selection of his successor (caliph) by Muhammads senior companions. The caliph was to be the political leader with not claim prophetic authority. However, a minority believed that Muhammad had designated Ali, who, as his cousin and son-in-law, was the senior male in Muhammads kin. For these followers of Ali later called Shii (partisan), leadership of the Islamic ummah or community was to stay with in the house of the Prophet. Ali and his descendants were to be the religiopolitical leaders or Imams of the community. The majority opinion prevailed which would become known as Sunni Islam. Following Muhammads example at Medina, the caliphs tried to maintain control on their states and tried to rule with piety and justice. The first seven centuries saw the Golden Age of Islam, which begun with the Four Rightly Guided Caliphate at Medina (632-61). Succeeded by the Umayyad Dynasty (661-750) based in Damascus. This was followed by the fabulous Abbasid Dynasty (750-1258) based in Baghdad. During this period Islam was on a par with China in its amazing development of art, science, education, agriculture,

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governance, and military strategy. The Golden Age of Islam was attributed to Allah and their submission to His will. The prevailing worldview was that the world was divided into Islamic territory (the dar al-Islam, abode of peace) and the non-Islamic world (the dar al-hard, abode of war). Muslims enjoyed full citizenship and paid certain taxes, while Jews and Christians (People of the Book) were designated protected people and paid a special poll tax in exchange for Muslim protection. Imperial Islam After the destructive Mongol conquest, beginning of the

thirteenth century, three powerful, distinctive Islamic Empires arose to control much of Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and North Africa. These were the Ottoman Turkish Empire in Asia Minor, the Safavid (Persia) Empire based in Iran, and the Mughal Empire based in India. The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 brought an end to the Byzantine Empire. The Ottomans emerged as one of the strongest empires in the world, employing artillery to support their cavalry and then creating the Janissary Corps, an infantry using firearms. The new and expensive military was supported by the development of an effective bureaucracy. The Ottoman Empire rapidly expanded, conquering most of the Arab Middle East and the Balkan Peninsula. Ottoman forces laid siege to Vienna in 1529 and 1683 but did not capture this central European capital. However, in both Eastern

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Europe and the Middle East the Ottomans remained essentially dominant until the end of the 17th century The Mughals conquered India, Muslim invaders from central Asia led by Babur (148330), a military adventurer. Small Mughal armies defeated huge Indian armies through effective use of firearms. Artillery enabled Mughal rulers to control local notables, and after the conquest of all of India, significant administrative reorganization during the reign of Akbar (15561605) established a major centralized. Akbar also introduced religious pluralism which antagonized some Muslim Imams. Aggravated by dynastic disputes after Akbars death and attempts to impose a standard form of Islam along with drastic limitations on the practice of Hinduism led to growing conflict, and, following the death of Aurangzeb (r. 16581707), Mughal power rapidly declined, though the empire technically lasted into the following century. In the instability following the disintegration of the empire of Timur-I Lang various tribal and religious groups competed for power. The Safavids, under the leadership of SHAH ISMAIL (r. 150224), conquered most of present-day Iran and established a state whose official religion was Shi'ite Islam. The early state had a traditional military structure, but SHAH ABBAS I (r. 15871629) created a gunpowder-based military force that enabled him to further centralize control. However, internal conflicts arose between the imperial and traditional military forces, and under the weak leadership of Shah

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Abbas's successors, the Safavid state disintegrated by 1722 and was replaced by the rule of a warrior-adventurer, Nadir Shah (r. 173647), who was a successful conqueror but was unable to establish an effective centralized state. There are a number of reasons for the success of Islamic expansion at such an astonishing rate. Among them are: the weakness of the Byzantine and Sassanid empires after years of warfare amongst themselves, the frustrations of the native population with imperial rule and the skill of the Arab warriors in battle. The most important factor, however, was the role of Islam in uniting the Arab tribes and providing a just cause for expansion. The rank and file men in the Caliphs

armies as well as the generals saw themselves not as Arabs fighting for their clans, but rather as warriors of Islam going in harms way to usher in Gods rule on earth. Since the incredible success of early Islam,

Muslims have viewed their civilization and its subsequent achievements as a vindication of the religion itself. The rate of expansion and the guidance of Islamic civilization during the Dark Ages of Europe proved the righteousness of Islam in the minds of Muslims.

DECLINE OF ISLAM However, Islamic empires began to decline in the 17th century. There were many factors that contributed to the decline and fall of Islamic empires. These were namely: (1) geography; (2) the expansion

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of modern western empires led the France, Britain (UK) and the United States (USA); and (3) internal political instability. The confluences of these factors led to the fall of Muslim empires. When Islam was in the ascendancy in 800 AD, the populations of Islamic and Christian European lands were about equal, at roughly 30m each. The Islamic lands boasted many of the world's largest and most dynamic trading cities. There were 13 Islamic cities of more than 50,000 people, including Alexandria, Baghdad, Cairo (Fostat), and Mecca. Western Europe had only Rome. Over the course of centuries, the demographic balance shifted decisively in Europe's favour. Europe not only regrouped politically under a more stable feudal structure, but also developed technologies such as the moldboard plough to farm the heavy soils of the northern European forests. Its population grew sharply after 1000 AD, reaching 100m by 1600. Islamic societies, by contrast, were hemmed in by aridity and lack of resources such as forests for timber and firewood. Their population remained nearly unchanged for centuries, increasing sharply towards the end of the 19th century with the advent of the industrial revolution and the technologies that it brought. The temperate-zone Turkic lands did somewhat better demographically than the Arabic desert regions, and not coincidentally the Islamic leadership passed from Arabia to the temperate-based Ottoman Empire.

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Outnumbered, Islam was also outmaneuvered, especially by Vasco da Gama, who found the sea route around Africa to Asia, thereby connecting Europe and Asia through oceanic trade that entirely bypassed the Silk Road and Red Sea routes of central Asia and the Middle East. Islamic control over Indian Ocean trade similarly fell to superior European naval power. And by the time the Suez Canal restored trade through the Red Sea in 1869, it was too late for Islam. Europe had already won, and would assert control over the Suez Canal and the associated ocean-based trade through military occupation and financial control. European conquest of the Islamic civilization was not uniform, but it was thorough and successful. It began in Mughul India by the British. Between 1798 and 1818, by treaty or by military conquest, British rule was established throughout India, except in the Indus Valley, which was subdued between 1843 and 1849. In the meantime, the French had tried to set up an empire of their own when Napoleon Bonapartes troops occupied Egypt in 1798. Bonaparte wanted to control the Suez with the objective of cutting the British sea-route to India. The European powers colonized one Islamic country after another. France occupied Algeria in 1830, and Britain Aden in 1839. Tunisia was occupied in 1881, Egypt in 1882. the Sudan in 1889, and Libya and Morocco in 1912. By the 19th century, the gradual decay of Islamic empires was nearing its final stage as the Ottoman Empire

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became the sick man of Europe and the Indian subcontinent was placed under formal colonial rule. As time went on, Muslims around the world found themselves facing the onslaught of a European expansion that challenged their Islamic identity and unity. After World War I the

measure of European dominance in the Islamic world became evident in the world map. The once vast Ottoman Empire was now the single The great Persian Empire of the

state of Turkey covering Anatolia.

Safavids was now Iran with minimal central authority. The rest of the Islamic world now belonged to West European powers, mainly France and Great Britain Western Empires superiority over the Muslim empires was the development of a new economic basis. Instead of relying upon a surplus of agricultural produce, it was founded on modern technology and an investment of capital that enable the West to reproduce its resources indefinitely. The Modern Western Civilization discovered the power of technology, capital and market motivated by individual and personal gains (profits). By 1900, at the final collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Europe had coal, hydropower, timber, and iron ore. The Islamic countries had few stocks of these 19th-century necessities for industrialization. The oil fields were discovered and exploited only after the Europeans had seized colonial control. But there were internal factors within the Muslim Empires that weakened any sustained resistance to the Western invasion of Islamic

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world. One internal weakness was the division of the Islamic civilization into the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal. Another was the backwardness of the agrarian feudal economy which failed to generate sufficient resources to sustain the material needs of the military and the empire bureaucracy. MODERN REVIVALISM OF ISLAM Modern Islamic revivalism was more of a response to European domination of Muslim countries that began in the late 19 th century. Muslim views to the European threat varied from feeling a sense of hopelessness to admiration at what the Europeans had managed over a couple of hundred years. Their responses to colonialism ranged from outright rejection and withdrawal to imitation and conversion to a secular society to Islamic modernism. Violent confrontation was an

option in the minds of some Muslims but the superior military strength of Europe meant that holy war would be doomed even before it started. The alternative was to reject all things Western and stick with what they had known all along, Islam. Those who admired Western culture and society sought to imitate their rulers and become educated in the Western ways. Their idea was to create a modern secular society with the knowledge of the West that could effectively deal with it. The last option that some chose was called Islamic modernism. 1 It sought to

bridge the gap between traditional and secular reformers. Modernists

1

John L. Esposito, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality? 2nd edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 101

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realized the need for the Western ideas and technology, but did not want to give up their Islamic ideals and values. They sought to capture the best of both worlds and incorporate into a single society that was self-sufficient. Along with the historical factors, a number of cultural factors have also influenced the development of various Muslim countries around the world. Among them are the perception of a Muslim culture

threatened by the secular ideals of the West, a breakdown of the Muslim family structure, often permissive and promiscuous societies and in general, a state of spiritual malaise from westernization. These cultural factors have laid the foundation for the psychological impact of modernity in these countries and that impact is being felt all around the world today. Urban areas have gone through such physical and

institutional changes that the society has lost touch with its rich Islamic heritage. Blind emulation of the West has permeated the very culture base of the Muslim world, from dress, language and education down to simple table manners and greetings.2 One of the problems with this cultural transformation is that it has taken place mainly in the urban areas among the elite of the society. The effects of westernization has only trickled down to the vast countryside in most Muslim countries, where a good portion of the population still live the same way they did when they gave their allegiance to a sultan instead of a president.

Ibid, 16

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The poor from the rural areas have moved to the urban centers to pursue a better life, but the poverty in urban slums and shantytowns have only aggravated their conditions. The loss of the rural identity

coupled with the breakdown of extended family ties has alienated many urban migrants. They have found their answers in the one constant

they have had all their lives, the spiritual relief of Islam. In Islam, they found the identity, fraternity, and cultural values to counter the psychological shock of western secularization and a way to cling to their roots of Islamic tradition. The rural migrant and the lower middle class have both found a way to solve the social, political and economical problems using a religious revival of Islam. The impacts of Islamic revivalism are evident in most Muslim countries of today. Contemporary historians agree that Egypt played a significant role in the modern revivalism of Islam. It has long been regarded as the most modern country in the Arab world. Egypt is the political and cultural leader in the Arab world as well as the rest of the Muslim world. Modern Egypt provides an outstanding example of the balance between the sociopolitical impact of Islam and that of the secular West. Since the revolt of the Free Officers movement to oust King Faruq in 1952, Egypt has been the center of Islamic revivalism under Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak. 3 The government of Egypt has used Islam to vindicate its authority, while the
3

William Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East, 2nd edition (Boulder: Westview Press, 2000), 295.

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opposition, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, has used Islam to show the faults of the government. The key difference of Islamic revivalism in Egypt is that it is not a movement on the fringes of society always looking to subvert the government, but rather a movement among the mainstream population dedicated to bring about a balanced social order. John Esposito describes the trend: The most important characteristic of Islamic revivalism in Egypt in the nineties is the extent to which revivalism has become part and parcel of moderate mainstream life and society, rather than a marginal phenomenon limited to small groups or organizations. No longer restricted to the lower or lower middle class, renewed awareness and concern about leading a more Islamically informed way of life can also be found among the middle and upper class, educated and uneducated, peasants and professionals, young and old, women and men.4

ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM There is another form of Islamic response to Western domination and secularization that began in the early eighties. This is the Islamic fundamentalist movement.5 However Islamic fundamentalism was initially a movement for reform of Islamic society. The anti-Western and anti-secular feature of Islamic fundamentalism is a modern feature.
4

John L. Esposito, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality? 2nd edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 100. 5 Karen S. Armstrong, Islam: A Brief History, (New York: The Modern Library, 2000), 6.

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Today s Islamic fundamentalism is an admixture Islamic tendencies from the 17th century Islamic natavistic movement for reform and the twentieth century movement against western imperialism. It is a reaction of to Western domination of the Arab World led by the United States. Some scholars have identified Wahhabism to be the forerunner of the modern fundamentalism.6 Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (d. 1792) could be considered the first modern Islamic fundamentalist. He made the central point of his reform movement the idea that absolutely every idea added to Islam after the third century of the Mulsim era (about 950 CE) was false and should be eliminated. The reason for this extremist stance, and a primary focus of his efforts, was a number of common practices which he regarded as regressions to the days of pre-Islamic polytheism. These included praying to saints, making pilgrimages to tombs and special mosques, venerating trees, caves, and stones, and using votive and sacrificial offerings. In contrast to such popular superstitions, al-Wahhab emphasized the unity of God (tawhid). This focus on absolute monotheism lead to him and his followers being referred to as muwahiddun, or "unitarians." Everything else he denounced as heretical innovation, or bida. He was further dismayed at the widespread laxity in adhering to traditional Islamic laws: questionable practices like the ones above
6

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were allowed to continue, whereas the religious devotions which Islam did require were being ignored. This resulted in indifference to the plight of widows and orphans, adultery, lack of attention to obligatory prayers, and failure to allocate shares of inheritance fairly to women. All of the above he characterized as being typical of jahiliyya, an important term in Islam which refers to the barbarism and state of ignorance which existed prior to the coming of Islam. By doing so, he identified himself with the Prophet Muhammad, and at the same time connected his contemporary society with the sort of thing Muhammad worked to overthrow. Because so many Muslims really lived (so he claimed) in jahiliyya, he accused them of not really being Muslims after all. Only those who followed the teachings of al-Wahhab were still truly Muslims, because only they still followed the path laid out by Allah. Obviously, Wahhabi religious leaders reject any reinterpretation of the Qur'an when it comes to issues settled by the earliest Muslims. In taking this position, they place themselves in opposition to a variety of Muslim reform movements which developed in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These movements worked to reinterpret aspects of Islamic law in order to bring it closer to standards set by the West, particularly with regards to topics like gender relations, family law, and participatory democracy.

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Today, Wahhabism is the dominant Islamic tradition on the Arabian penninsula, though its influence is greatly reduced in the rest of the Middle East. As Osama bin Laden comes from Saudi Arabia and is Wahhabi himself, Wahhabi extremism and radical ideas of purity have obviously influenced him considerably. Also, even though Wahhabism is a minority position, it has nevertheless been influential for other extremist movements

throughout the Middle East. This can be seen with a couple of factors, first of which is al-Wahhab's use of the term jahiliyya to vilify a society which he does not consider pure enough, whether they call themselves Muslim or not. Even today, Islamists use the term when referring to the West and at times even to their own societies. With it, they can justify overthrowing what many might regard as an Islamic state by essentially denying that it is truly Islamic at all. A second influence is demonstrated by the strict Wahhabi opposition to any reinterpretation of traditional Islamic law. Although Wahhabism allows for new interpretations when it comes to issues never decided upon by early jurists (say, for example, the relative morality of socialism or capitalism), many of the fundamental influences of the West don't touch upon them. Modern Islamists follow the Wahhabi example by opposing any attempt to reconcile traditional Islam with modern, Western notions regarding issues like gender, family, and religious rights.

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On the other hand two Muslim intellectuals have articulated an extreme anti-western and anti-secular Islamic ideology namely (1) Hassan al-Banna (1906-49), a school teacher and founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928 and (2) Mawlana Abul Ala Mawdudi (1903-79), a journalist and organizer of the Jamaat-I-Islami in India in 1941.7 The two became aware of the growing power of the West

encroaching upon their Islamic enclave in the form of colonial power, and the secularist threat put the Muslims on the defensive. They

proposed a liberation theory of sorts, in that since God was sovereign, they were required to take orders from no human beings. Mawdudi

called for a jihad against the Western colonial powers, and was the first Muslim to declare jihad a central tenet of Islam, equivalent to the five Pillars. An apparent distortion of Islamic doctrine, this extreme and

potentially violent alteration of the faith would fit the modern definition of fundamentalism, and their teachings would later influence other Islamic fundamentalists. Among the primary teachings of al-Banna and Mawdudi were the following

The teachings of the two developed separately but would converge in the person of Sayyid Qutb ( 1906-1966), who was
7

John L. Esposito, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality? 2nd edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 129-133.

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influenced by Mawdudi and became a member of

the Muslim

Brotherhood in 1953 with the intent of trying to somewhat harmonize Western democracy and the Islamic faith. After his imprisonment by alNasser three years later, Qutb changed his views and began to preach against the secular government of al-Nasser. He took himself further than Mawdudi by stating Muslims should model themselves after Mohammed, separating from mainstream society, and then engage in a violent jihad. However, Qutb failed to also preach that Mohammed was non-violent and that the Koran advocated tolerance and opposed coercion in religious matters. Qutb believed this intolerance could occur only after Egypt was cleansed of its secularism and became a true Muslim state. He was executed by al-Nasser in 1966, fueling the

movement he helped to establish.

The radicalization of the Islamic fundamentalism was a result of state repression. The term fundamentalism is not always the preferred label for the phenomenon it is used to describe. The press and scholars have used to identify the reassertion of religion into politics, an extreme and anti-secular approach to a given religion. The term is First, it

somewhat descriptive, but at the same time misleading.

suggests that all those who desire for a return to the foundational beliefs (fundamentals) of a religion could be labeled fundamentalist. This description could literally include all Muslims, who accept the

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Koran as the literal word of Mohammed and use it as a model for how to live their lives. It would also include many Christians and Jews that are literal in their interpretation of the Bible or Torah. Second, the root of the word fundamentalism stems back from early American

Protestantism, and is defined by Websters Ninth New College Dictionary as emphasizing the literally interpreted Bible as

fundamental to Christian life and teaching. This situation may be the case for many Christians, yet a majority of mainline or even liberal Christians find the term fundamentalism disparaging, and view those who are such labeled as static, retrogressive, and extremist. Yet few Middle Easterners fall into this category. Many are well educated, have high positions in society, and have progressive intents in creating modern institutions within society like hospitals and schools. Lastly,

many have come to associate the term fundamentalism with political activism. Extreme anti-Americanism and even terrorism are tenets

found in very few fundamental leaders and organizations. However, it is these few that pose the real threat to the West.8 As noted earlier, fundamentalism is not a movement just restricted to Islam. Religious scholar Karen Armstrong points out that in addition to existing within the Christian and Jewish faiths,

fundamentalism is

also found

in Sikhism, Hinduism, and even

Confucianism. They all may share several things, such as the desire to revert to a more religious society, but they differ in the matter in which
8

John L. Esposito, The Islamic Threat, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 7.

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they arose. The Muslim fundamentalist movement began as a reaction to the West. It was not an immediate occurrence, but rather a slow, drawn out process. As seen in the case of Sayyid Qutb, the reformer first tried to harmonize Western thought and democracy with his religion, adding a religious angle to Western thought to better apply it in the Muslim state. When these two things could not be easily

reckoned, and as a result of the extreme secularism Qutb was exposed to in Egypt, he concluded that Islam was insoluble with the West and took extreme measures in response. Islam is also unique from the

other religions fundamentalist organizations in that it developed much later, in the 1950s and 1960s, most likely because modern culture took root in the Muslim world long after it had in Christianity and Judaism.9 All fundamentalist movements share several things in common that might give a better insight into their ideology and reason for existence. They are extremely fearful of modernity, and they are Fearful, because in their

disappointed with the modern experience.

eyes secularist Western societies place a diminishing role on religion, and these secularists look to those groups that do have more significant views towards their faith as extreme. They are disappointed in the fact that modern society, with its advancements in rights and freedoms, is not as satisfying as their faith is, highlighting the somewhat
9

symbiotic

relationship

between

secularism

and

Armstrong, 169.

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fundamentalism.

As

result

of

their

dissatisfaction,

the

fundamentalists highlight those aspects of their beliefs that go most directly against the modern culture in which they live in, such as repression of women and in some cases the suppression of free speech. The fundamentalism community can thus be seen as the shadow-side of modernity; it can also highlight some of the darker sides of the modern experiment.10 The one thing the movement has contributed is pushing religion into the center, drawing attention not only to their extreme views but also highlighting the breach that society has made from religion in general.

MODERN TERROISM Fundamentalism should be distinguished from terrorism.

Fundamentalism is a religious phenomenon while terrorism is a political strategy or tactics. Media have unfairly associated Islam to two words that most often come to mind in many Filipinos namely

fundamentalism, and terrorism. Often times the Christians look to the Arab nations with a sense of foreboding, of an imminent conflict over ideologies that clash, religions that contradict, and values that are nowhere similar. There are a good many people who think that the war between communism and western democracy is about to be replaced by a war between the West and Muslims. However, to what degree is this true, and how much is simply myth?
10

Armstrong, 166.

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We know that images and terminology influence public opinion, and a bad impression is left when Islam is reported in the daily headlines. The term "Islamic fundamentalism" or Muslim terrorist, whatever it means, has been repeated enough times in relation to violent incidents that naturally, any thinking human being has to be uncomfortable with the fact that the Philippines is home to a vibrant Muslim community in the South. The problem stems from negative images about Islam. In the court of public opinion, Islam is guilty until proven innocent. Even though the Middle East was home to fewer terrorist incidents than Latin America and Europe, for example, it is still regarded as the region where terrorism is rooted. According to a recent US State Department report, Patterns of Global Terrorism, issued earlier this year, 272 terrorist events occurred in Europe, 92 in Latin America and 45 in the Middle East. Sixty-two anti-US attacks occurred in Latin America last year, 21 in Europe and 6 in the Middle East. These numbers represent the terrorist trend and not an anomaly, whereby the majority of perpetrators are not linked to the Middle East or Islam. The Red Army Faction in Germany, the Basque Separatists in Spain, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, the Shining Path in Peru and the National Liberation Army in Columbia are not viewed with the same horror as terrorist groups of Muslim background.

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There is no moral justification for terrorism regardless of the ethnic or religious background of the perpetrator or the victim, but the factual basis of terrorism has been either hidden or twisted in the public's perception of this policy problem, especially in congressional hearings on terrorism. The countries with the worst terrorist records in the world are not in the Middle East either. They are not even Muslim countries outside the Middle East. They are in Columbia and Germany, havens for drug lords and neo-Nazis. Certainly the threat does exist, now more so than ever. The

fears materialized for all on September 11, 2001, when Americans watched with utter disbelief as an attack was carried out on their own soil against American civilians. The perpetrators were Islamic

fundamentalists, and since that day the American people have been given a course by the media in Islam: its beliefs, and most significantly, the presence of Muslims with extreme views and the threat they pose to Christian society. The conflict between parts of the Muslim world and the West may have replaced the tensions between the West and communism, but much of it is due to a lack of understanding on the part of the West and a misperception of the extent of fundamentalist groups. Much of the rhetoric stirred up regarding the threat of fundamentalism is done so by the Muslim governments themselves. They use the danger posed by the threat of radicalism within their country as a reason to persecute

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and suppress Islamic movements by banning certain organizations, imprisoning activists, and violating human rights. 11 Whether those in power use this rationalization to gain Western favor or as a useful reason to limit those who might challenge their authority or present a dissension within their country, it has contributed to growth of fundamentalism. Whoever fundamentalism is not synonymous with terrorism. People are forced to resort to terrorism and terrorism abounds because of circumstances. And many of these terrorist organizations emerge and flourish not from the US and Europe but from third World countries and the Muslim world, specifically from countries where there is the absence of democracy that has caused a vacuum that Islamic militants alone were able to fill. While governments silenced all dissident political speech, Islam enjoyed the use of an inviolable space (the mosque) a tribune (the preacher's pulpit) and a sacred public language (religious discourse). Forms of public discontent thus have tended to take on religious accents. And there has been plenty of discontent to go around. Its roots lie in political repression, economic dislocation and inequality, gaudy consumption rubbing elbows with desperate want, the alienation of the urban young, intellectuals and members of the middle class, threatened

11

Esposito, 173.

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by the globalization of their domestic economy and yearning for the certainty and stability that seems so much a thing of the past. It is only one of the many paradoxes of globalization that it comes hand in hand with cultural disparity, not homogeneity; polarization, not consensus. For the influx of images and goods from the West may well create shared wants and desires, but not shared enjoyment. Islam having thus become the privileged channel of protest, both its characteristics and the repressive conditions under which it has had to operate contributed to the radicalization of politics and, in some instances, to the resort to violence: its moral language and its fusion of the political with the religious, which could turn earthly arguments about right and wrong into holy debates on good and evil; its classical imagery of warfare, conquest and martyrdom; its self-perceived status as an oppressed religion long besieged by non-Muslims (from the crusades to colonialism to Western support for Israel to America's war against Iraq); the state's suppression of almost all forms of peaceful dissent. The perception in the Middle East is that US policy does not serve the peoples interests; it protects Israel and friendly Arab dictators even when they violate human rights, while it slaps sanctions on and takes military actions against countries whose dictators misbehave, resulting in suffering, starvation and even slaughter, all in the name of teaching the tyrants a lesson. The priorities in the Middle East for the US are not

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human rights and democracy, but rather oil and Israeli superiority. Consequently, anti-American sentiment increases. All this helped transform Islamic movements into vehicles of radical insurgency against repressive regimes; against the American superpower that backs them. The rise of radical, anti-Western Islamic Fundamentalism is the product of several psychological associations, whether justified or not: of Westernization with conspicuous

consumption, impoverishment and widening inequalities; of economic injustice with faithlessness. There is a leap from these feelings of resentment and even violence that exist among the many of the poor, deprived and exploited people. The terrorist groups succeeded in laying hands on the

resentment and the disenchantment of these people; what they then choose to do with both is something hardly any of us can genuinely comprehend. There is no such thing as Islamic terrorism. There are Muslims who happen to be angry and terrorists who happen to be Muslim. That is a distinction that makes all the difference. A war on terrorism is not likely to end terrorism. To solve the problem of terrorism requires addressing its roots: internal constraints,

dictatorships sponsored by the West and the economic backwardness and mal-development that results form neo-liberal globalization. I suggest that terrorism will wane in the face of the evolution of modern

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Islamic public spheres that might challenge religious fundamentalism and extremism.