Tuesday, July 3
Glad to See
Many people in the West will be glad to see this account of a Muslim publicly renouncing terrorism and asking other Muslims to do the same. That is very refreshing and a nice break from the far more common refrain of "terrorists aren't really Muslim," which, though often repeated, is seldom convincing.
The author, a former advocate of Muslim terrorism, explains the theological reasoning used by radical Muslims to justify their actions, and very interestingly offers the first Islamic theological rebuttal to them which I have seen:
How do Islamic radicals justify such terror in the name of their religion? ... Many Muslims may or may not agree with secularism but at the moment, formal Islamic theology, unlike Christian theology, does not allow for the separation of state and religion. There is no 'rendering unto Caesar' in Islamic theology because state and religion are considered to be one and the same. The centuries-old reasoning of Islamic jurists also extends to the world stage where the rules of interaction between Dar ul-Islam (the Land of Islam) and Dar ul-Kufr (the Land of Unbelief) have been set down to cover almost every matter of trade, peace and war.
What radicals and extremists do is to take these premises two steps further. Their first step has been to reason that since there is no Islamic state in existence, the whole world must be Dar ul-Kufr. Step two: since Islam must declare war on unbelief, they have declared war upon the whole world. Many of my former peers, myself included, were taught by Pakistani and British radical preachers that this reclassification of the globe as a Land of War (Dar ul-Harb) allows any Muslim to destroy the sanctity of the five rights that every human is granted under Islam: life, wealth, land, mind and belief. In Dar ul-Harb, anything goes, including the treachery and cowardice of attacking civilians.
He responds with an appeal to what might be termed "Islamic ecclesiology," pointing out that only an Islamic state would have the right to declare war in Islam, not individual Muslims. Read the article itself for the solution he offers his fellow Muslims. Read the whole article.
The author, a former advocate of Muslim terrorism, explains the theological reasoning used by radical Muslims to justify their actions, and very interestingly offers the first Islamic theological rebuttal to them which I have seen:
How do Islamic radicals justify such terror in the name of their religion? ... Many Muslims may or may not agree with secularism but at the moment, formal Islamic theology, unlike Christian theology, does not allow for the separation of state and religion. There is no 'rendering unto Caesar' in Islamic theology because state and religion are considered to be one and the same. The centuries-old reasoning of Islamic jurists also extends to the world stage where the rules of interaction between Dar ul-Islam (the Land of Islam) and Dar ul-Kufr (the Land of Unbelief) have been set down to cover almost every matter of trade, peace and war.
What radicals and extremists do is to take these premises two steps further. Their first step has been to reason that since there is no Islamic state in existence, the whole world must be Dar ul-Kufr. Step two: since Islam must declare war on unbelief, they have declared war upon the whole world. Many of my former peers, myself included, were taught by Pakistani and British radical preachers that this reclassification of the globe as a Land of War (Dar ul-Harb) allows any Muslim to destroy the sanctity of the five rights that every human is granted under Islam: life, wealth, land, mind and belief. In Dar ul-Harb, anything goes, including the treachery and cowardice of attacking civilians.
He responds with an appeal to what might be termed "Islamic ecclesiology," pointing out that only an Islamic state would have the right to declare war in Islam, not individual Muslims. Read the article itself for the solution he offers his fellow Muslims. Read the whole article.
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