1 MARCH 19 / / FRIDAY / / ISLAM
ISLAM
UNDERSTANDING OTHERS COMPLEXLY
PI
CTURE CAPTION: THE MOON RISES OVER MECCA
Islam Today
DEREK PHILLIPS AND MAX FAN
27 February 2019
Rarely has the world been as divided as it is
now on the topic of Islam. The problem is
that too often, we imagine Islam as a
monolith, with those that are Muslims on
one side and those that are not Muslims on
the other, however, that imagining of the
word is not entirely accurate.
As with Christianity, Islam has many sects,
from the Shias to the Sunnis, from
fundamentalists to reformists.
As populism rises all over the world with
the election of the likes of Trump in the US,
Duterte in the Philippines and the growing
support for Le Pen in France Islam has
become something of a victim.
Why? Because for populist movements to
succeed, they need a broad voter base. The
issue is, a single mom in Iowa has very
different needs than a coal miner in West
Virginia. So, any substantial policy which
may be implemented is guaranteed to
segregate some part of that voter base.
This forces populists to campaign on scape-
goating through blaming those that are not
voting for them. This looks like Mexicans
and Muslims in the US and many other
religious minorities in France.
When politics continues to happen on an
overly broad scale, it is often difficult to
imagine their affects behind the rhetoric but
looking at individuals rather than collectives
can be very helpful in this process.
PICTURE CAPTION: MANY MUSLIMS ENGAGING IN RELIGIOUS RITUAL IN THE DIRECTION OF
MECCA
A BRIEF
INTRODUCTION TO
ISLAM
DEREK PHILLIPS AND MAX FAN
detail and allow it more nuance than it is
28 February 2019 often afforded in mass media.
Let’s begin with the basics: Islam is a
As the world’s second most popular
monotheistic religion, meaning that there
religious belief, Islam engages
is one unique god as opposed to many
almost a quarter of the world in its
gods. It also shares a lot in common with
teachings through the Quran as a
Christianity in so far as it is one of three
sacred text. Given that it is so
powerful, it is rather strange how Abrahamic religions (Islam, Judaism and
little we actually know about the Christianity) — religions that can be
Quran living in Australia. traced back to a common Abraham.
This one god is known as “Allah” or
In 2015 when 100,000 randomly
God, and his word was given to the
sampled Australians were asked
about whether they knew the sacred people through a historical figure known
text of Islam, only 12% could name as Mohammed.
the Quran.
And thus, one of the world’s most
powerful and compelling religions was
So, in this presentation, we’re going
born.
to try to explore the Quran in fuller
[DP&MF]
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