The Rise of Religious Fanaticism among Muslims and the Direction for True Islamic Revival

 This Wahhabi version is still being followed in Saudi Arabia, and preached as an official version of Islam, even though the Quran does not support their archaic, extreme and militant positions. Following the Wahhabi dictates, the Saudi Government enforces rigid adherence to archaic shariah punishments, such as the mutilation of thieves. Note also that the Quran does not support monarchical or authoritarian rule, which is a major violation of the Quranic principles by the Saudi regime. Over the years, with newfound oil wealth, the Saudi government has distributed lavish funds throughout the world to build mosques and madrasahs, and even to finance religious teachers and preachers to preach and spread their version of Islam in all Muslim countries as well as in developed countries like the United States and Europe. Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda group and other terrorist organizations have also benefited from the Saudi dole-outs. An enquiry instituted by the National Security Council of the United States government in late 1998 revealed that in recent decades the desert kingdom has been the single greatest force in spreading Islamic fundamentalism. The story of the Saudi patronization of fanatic Wahhabism has been also forcefully brought out in a recent book The Two Faces of Islam by contemporary Muslim writer and journalist Stephen Suleyman Schwartz. Schwartz argues in his book that Wahhabism, vigorously exported with the help of Saudi oil money, is what incites Palestinian suicide bombers, Osama bin Laden, and other Islamic terrorists throughout the world. A recent Newsweek article suggests that at least 50 percent of American mosques may receive some funding from foreign governments or institutions, mostly Saudi Arabia. Whatever its source, fundamentalist Islamic ideology is readily available on the Internet as well as in U.S. mosques. (Lisa Miller, “Islam in America: A Special Report”, Newsweek, July 30, 2007.)

 Thus what some historians and scholars of comparative religions have termed as contemporary Islamic revival or resurgence in the world is in large part a Wahhabi phenomenon fueled by Saudi patronization. As a result of this resurgence, as noted scholar of comparative religions John Esposito notes, “In recent years, tensions and clashes between Muslim and non-Muslim communities have [rather] increased”; minority religious groups such as “the Copts in Egypt, Bahai and Jews in Iran, Chinese in Malaysia, and Christians in the Sudan, Pakistan, and Nigeria” have become targets of attacks by Muslims. “The creation of more Islamically oriented societies, especially the introduction of Islamic laws, has resulted in varying degrees of tension, conflict, violence, and killing in the name of religion. […] The Bahai of Iran and the Ahmadiya of Pakistan, on the other hand, are regarded as apostates or heretics.” (See his Islam—The Straight Path, New York, Oxford University Press, 1991, p. 192)

 What has become a more ominous trend currently is that some fundamentalists among Muslims are continuing to increasingly use the aggressive techniques of Wahhabism, and are systematically conducting terrorist attacks in various countries. Amir Taheri, an Iranian-born journalist, points out that “the Muslim world today is full of bigotry, fanaticism, hypocrisy and plain ignorance—all of which create a breeding ground for criminals like bin Laden” (Taher, Amiri, “Islam can’t Escape Blame for Sept. 11,” Wall Street Journal, 24 October 2001; cited in Robert Spencer, Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions about the World’s Fastest-Growing Faith, Encounter Books, San Francisco, 2002., p. 37). Bassam Tibi, a Syrian Professor of International Relations at the University of Göttingen, Germany forcefully argues in his book The Challenge of Fundamentalism: Political Islam and the New World Disorder written prior to the September 11 attacks that Islamic fundamentalism (or, Islamism in contrast to Islam) […] poses a grave challenge to world politics, security, and stability. Indeed, starting with the September 11, terrorist attacks perpetrated by Muslim extremists have proliferated in recent years, months and days. Recent episodes of post-September Eleven ghastly attacks in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Morocco, Spain, the United Kingdom, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are vivid in human memory. This highlights the point that Muslims in general as well as all humankind in the world at large are currently passing through a critically perilous situation. All sane human beings need to rise to the occasion to meet the challenge of this predicament.

 Muslims still dote on their glorious past. In the peak of their civilizational role, Europe was in the Dark Ages, and dependent on Muslims for their enlightenment. What is the reason for Muslims’ decay and degeneration? Today all Muslims need to dispassionately ponder what has gone wrong with them. Bernard Lewis observed, “For many centuries the world of Islam was in the forefront of human civilization and achievement. […] In most of the arts and sciences of civilization, medieval Europe was a pupil and in a sense a dependant of the Islamic world, relying on Arabic versions even for many otherwise unknown Greek versions” (See his What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response, Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 3 and 7). Certainly this question is more pertinent today after the September Eleven and subsequent tragic events. Observing the stark differences between the West and the Middle East in economics, politics, reforms in various fields such as education and law, and modernization, Lewis appropriately thought that the underlying reasons were not so much the differences in the visible sources of power and prosperity—military, economic and political as the “more profound, yet somehow for long overlooked […] crucial differences in approach, in attitude, and in perception between two neighboring civilizations” with regard to topics covering women, science and music (or arts), and slavery (ibid, 2002, pp. 46–53, 64–69).  Attitudinal differences between Muslims living in Muslim countries and non-Muslims of the West, especially after the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, make considerable difference in explaining the backwardness of Muslims.

The Direction for True Islamic Revival

 Islam’s real revival is yet to take place. And this can take place only when Muslims start to seriously think about their own predicament. They need to do a lot of their own soul searching. It is as early as fourteen centuries ago that the Quran laid so much emphasis on thinking: “Do they not then think in their own minds?…” (30:8) … “Do they not then ponder the Quran? Or is it that there are locks upon their hearts (or minds)?” (47:24). While the vast majority of Muslims have stopped thinking, some thinking has no doubt already begun among some modern educated Muslims, despite the deplorable fact that such thinking is brutally suppressed and repressed in many Muslim countries. Richard Bullet, writing in 1994 in his book Islam, The View from the Edge, observed that we are currently living through one of the greatest periods of intellectual and religious creativity in Islamic—and human—history. This is even truer after the September 11 events. In recent years and contemporary times, many Muslims have been engaging in ijtihad (rethinking and reinterpretation) of Islam, the doors of which were closed by the tenth century. Evidently, the absence of ijtihad for many centuries has had a lot to do with the backwardness of Muslims in terms of civil norms—respect for human dignity, freedom, human rights, pluralism and tolerance, and reason and justice, as well as in scientific, technological and economic developments. Muqtedar Khan, a contemporary staunch exponent of ijtihad, aptly notes, “If Muslims wish to unite and revive the great spirit of Islam and its civilizing ethos, then we must learn to be more tolerant and more open minded in our approach to contending arguments. Strength, legitimacy and vitality come from openness, tolerance of difference and from the willingness to create rather than to burn bridges. […] The present rigid and inflexible approach to Islamic legal opinions of the past must be discarded and replaced with a more open and compassionate understanding of Islam”( See his American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom, Amana Publications, 2002, p. 86; emphasis is mine). He also observes:

The biggest disservice that Muslims do to Islam and Muhammad is their uncritical approach to Islamic sources. […] It is time Muslims revisited their sources with a critical perspective and discarded what is false, improbable and inconsistent with the values of mercy, tolerance and justice. […] By adhering to irrational, anachronistic—and often meaningless—traditions, they obscure the power and beauty of Islam and deprive themselves and the rest of the world from its message. (taken from his website www.ijtihad.org)

 These observations beautifully capture the gist of one of the main points my book Exploring Islam in a New Light: An Understanding from the Quranic Perspective (See: www.explorequran.org) has tried to expound: we Muslims do need to rethink and reevaluate the so-called Prophetic traditions, which are “irrational and anachronistic—and often meaningless” and misleading. However, the proponents of ijtihad have come only half way to discard the Hadith. They need to come the full way to embrace the idea that the so-called Hadith, which contains anti-Quran, anti-Muhammad, anti-women, anti-reason, anti-progress, anti-peace and anti-tolerance ideas, cannot be claimed as authentic prophetic discourse, and hence must be discarded as part of Islam. Contrary to the view of some scholars, ijtihad is not the exclusive domain of the Muslim ulama. They have in fact proved to be ill equipped and incapable of doing ijtihad. Because of the wrong and anachronistic teachings in traditional religious schools—madrasahs, their knowledge, and consequently their vision, has become limited and bigoted, and their minds closed. The leadership for ijtihad has mostly come from Muslim intellectuals who have received modern education, and it is they who should carry forward this ijtihad. As Pakistani Professor of an American university Ali Minai aptly observes, Islam’s interpretation should no longer be left to the most regressive segment[s] of Muslim society.

 Madrasahs, where only traditional religious instruction is imparted and no modern subjects in science and arts are taught, instead of becoming real learning centers of Islam, have rather become breeding grounds of religious fanatics. Fourteen centuries ago, the Prophet Muhammad came with the Quran to civilize and purify humankind and make them wise (62:2; 36:2). It is ironic that madrasahs have failed to produce wise people, and their alumni, being deprived of education and training in modern subjects, have failed to become men of any real practical utility to themselves, to their families and to humankind. With fanatically oriented education, it should not be surprising to see that some of these alumni would turn into extremists to embrace militant techniques.

  One of the most important first steps to revive and revitalize Islam would, therefore, be to thoroughly remodel these madrasahs on the pattern of modern schools, which should include religious education as well; but such education should be purged of the teaching of traditional material (such as the Hadith) as sacred religious sources. Also, religion should be a special subject in general education at the university level. As always, the clash of ideas will always be there. Today the real clash is between fundamentalism and modernity. Fundamentalism does not belong to Islam. Religion and modernity are not necessarily antithetical. Islam properly understood does embrace the elements of modernity that define the western economic system—the ideas of liberty, competition, free enterprise, integrity and business ethics, etc.

 The light of human guidance the Quran brought fourteen centuries ago is as luminous and bright today as when it came (5:15). To learn how to become a good Muslim, one does not need another book. The Quran provides right and complete guidance (2:2; 17:9; 10:57; 16:89). For long, Muslims have neglected the Quran and followed spurious and misguided messages from the Hadith. It is time they return to their only Holy Book—the Quran—and understand and follow its message. The return to the Quran will mark Islam’s true revival. None should think that reciting the verses of this Holy Book without understanding the meaning is any virtue. This is utter misguidance to keep Muslims ignorant of the true message of Islam. Both Muslims and non-Muslims should read this Holy Book to get Islam’s true message, which remains as true, civilizing, and relevant to our times as before. Mere observance of some rituals does not make one a good Muslim. To become a good Muslim, one needs first to be a good human being and a thoroughly moral and ethical person. A fifteenth century Bengali poet-priest Chandidas wrote this strikingly modern word of wisdom: Above all is Man—respect for humanity or human values; nothing is above it (Shobar upor manush shotto; tahar upore nai). The Quran has laid a lot of emphasis on our becoming just and kind to fellow human beings. We need to serve humanity, just as God serves humanity. Unfortunately, the humanitarian aspects of the Islamic religion have been overshadowed by spurious religious teachings, which amply explain our deplorable plight.

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