Islam can be understood as a holon[i] and is also one of the world's fasted growing religions. Islam itself covers a large spectrum of consciousness[ii] in its people, ranging from suicide bombers and terrorists, to the high teachings of Sufism[iii]. In order to understand Islam[iv] it is necessary to understand the structure[v] of Islam, radical Islam, and the ways in which progressive Islam can flourish[vi].
Islam is one of the three monotheistic religions that grew out of the Abrahamic faith[vii]. It was founded by the prophet Muhammad who lived from the year 570 AD to 632 AD. Muhammad is believed by Muslims to have received the revelation to "Recite" from the angel Gabriel. Muhammad is multifaceted[viii] and served many different roles during his lifetime, from prophet to military warrior[ix] to his religious authority as statesman. The authenticity of Muhammad as a prophet is unquestionable according to Muslims, and his life is known through the Qur'an and the Traditions (Hadith).[x]
The core of Islam means surrendering one's life to God.[xi] Muslim beliefs are supported by five pillars (iman) of faith. [xii] Muslims see the holy Qur'an[xiii] as the inviolate word of God delivered to the prophet Muhammad. One of the most important beliefs for a Muslim is the belief that there are no other gods except Allah.[xiv] Another important aspect is the journey of the Hajj, the journey to Mecca.
Islam's main problems are the challenging issues of modernity as well as the extremist ideologies of fundamentalism. Puritanical Islam uses fear from without to keep its members inside the holon, while also using fear to keep its members vigilant against the internal enemy.[xv] In this way the holon (group) is sharply defined in the mentality of the individual; those who are inside the group vs. those who are outside.[xvi] It is radical Islamic groups that labels, mistreats, punishes, and ultimately kills the outsiders of the group.[xvii] Unfortunately, it is these puritanical groups that have usurped the power in Arab states, notably Saudi Arabia, and have spread their ideology through education,[xviii] and propaganda.[xix]
Radical Islam is not just a couple individuals, it is a movement. Puritanical or radical Islam emerged in strength as a reaction to Nasserism[xx] in the 1950's and has steadily grown. A number of different thinkers and philosophers of radical Islam have espoused their ideologies to the Arab world, authors such as including Sayyid Qutb[xxi], Hassan al-Banna, and Sayyid Abul-Ali Mawdudi, and Abdullah Azzam.
Wahabism is one of these leading ideologies of radical Islam.[xxii] This Islamic ideology draws a clear line between believers and non-believers of Islam.
Wahabism believers seeks to purify Islam of corrupting influences, and returning to the original "purity" of Islam not through critically engaging in modernity, but through a literal interpretation of the Koran, and defending the institution of Islam (holon) from detractors. It has resulted in apologetics seeking to justify Islam on all grounds,[xxiii] including militant jihad. Wahabism also goes by the modern name Salafism. The recent resurgence of Wahabist ideology continues to influence groups such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
In order to find a solution[xxiv] to Islam's fundamentalist problem and reach reconciliation,[xxv] Muslim voices[xxvi] must speak out against radical Islam. Reform must come from inside Islam and indirect pressure from the outside as well as addressing the cultural, economic and political causes.[xxvii] The United States is in a unique position on helping Islam enter the modern world and counteracting radical Islam's ideology of hatred with an ideology of pluralism and emphasizing itjihad.[xxviii]
Islam can't be destroyed; it can only be integrated into the modern world. By looking at previous examples of culture, a pattern emerges which shows where Islam is headed. From its tribal beginnings the notion of the Islamic state was founded upon the ideal of Medina[xxix], where Muhammad was seen holding the supreme authority as prophet/lawgiver. This has decidedly had a negative effect which emerged in recent decades with the spread of puritanical and anti-western ideologies from Wahabi ulama. Fortunately, the differentiation of the value spheres, religion and politics, is inevitable in the evolution to modernity.[xxx] It will come about when more Muslims are ready to emphasize human values, ("the best interests of human beings,"[xxxi]) equal to, or more than, a mythic society's interpretation of God. This will come about not through the efforts of forced secularism, but through secularization[xxxii]; through the efforts of the Muslim people who want to embrace the modern world.[xxxiii] An Islamic democracy has to be rooted in the ideals of pluralism.[xxxiv]
Although Sufism cannot be looked at to provide political reform[xxxv], it is in Sufism that Muslims can look to for the rich cultural traditions of their faith. Sufism already shares a lot of the advanced views of other religious traditions. It is in Sufism that one reaches not for a scriptural knowledge of God, but towards an experiential understanding of God.[xxxvi]
In order for the beauty[xxxvii] of Islam to shine though, it is necessary for the extremist elements of Islam to disappear and be removed. This is the true jihad, or struggle, that Islam now finds itself in. It will then be that the truth of Islam will become known:
"The underlying truth of human existence, as of all existence, is the truth of tawhid [unity]. There is nothing real but the Real; there is no consciousness but His consciousness, no justice but His justice, no good but His good."[xxxviii]
[i] Holons are wholes/parts. Holons can be thought of as spheres within spheres or classes within classes. Each community (such as Muslim) can be labeled a holon, that transcends and includes each individual person (themselves a holon, or whole/part) of the community. Every holon has agency (self-preservation and autonomy), communion (communications between other holons or entities), and the capacity for self-transcendence or self-dissolution. The agency, or autonomy, of a holon is the defining characteristics of that holon. As a self-preserving entity or holon, Muslims have a say in just what "defines" and constitutes the qualities of being a Muslim. [See Wilber's Sex, God, Ecology, pgs25-85]
[ii] Spectrum of Consciousness
All ideologies, people, institutions, organizations, religions, etc (hence all holons) can be described by a spectrum of consciousness. Just as individuals travel through a spectrum of consciousness, external societies also travel through a developmental spectrum. They are in Spiral Dynamics; instinctive, animistic/tribalistic, power gods, absolutist-religious, individualistic-achiever, relativistic, systematic-integrative, and global-holistic. An individual or organization can be at one level of development, while having another part at a different level. [see Wilbers Integral Psychology pgs 38-54]
Religion, as an institution, can be used by different people who have different level of consciousness or understanding. Traditional Islam finds itself in the absolutist-religious stage (conformist). Christianity and America have gone through a lot of these stages already in the West, from the absolutist-religious (puritanical America, the Salem Witch trials) to individualistic-achiever ( the rise of science, democracies, the Western Enlightenment, Industrial and Informational Age) to relativistic (multi-culturalism, humanitarian churches). Christianity still struggles with the modern idea of evolution though.
[iii]. Sufi's are looked at with suspicion, but there are those that say it represents the true essence of Islam. Sufism is the mystical component of Islam which teaches and emphasizes that God is reached through divine love. Sufis strive to extinguish (fana) the ego (nafs) in order to reach the state of abiding (baqa) with God. [i.e. God consciousness]
"The Sufis, for their part, stress the immanence of God within man and the universe, but without this implying any material identification at all. Transformations and changes in the world do not affect God, even if He dwells within man in his innermost heart as the Spirit, the ultimate Witness of all things."
--The Inner Journey pg 207
[iv] A number of progressives like using the term progressive Muslims (Omid Safi) as it emphasizes the humanness of the individual. Inasmuch as I am focusing on holons, I will be using the term progressive Islam.
-- Progressive Muslims pg 18.
[v]
The response to 9/11 and other recent terrorists attacks have generally fallen into three categories:
- 1) The approach by Muslim apologists who try to show the ‘real' Islam and how it is an inherently peaceful religion.
"The statement that "Islam is a religion of peace" must not be allowed to become a license to avoid dealing with the grinding realities of social, political, and spiritual injustice on the ground level"-Omid Safi Progressive Muslims pg 26.
- 2) Blaming western imperialism and secularization (modernity).
- 3) Identifying and pinpointing extremist groups of Islam that pose (and often declare) a danger to modern society.
I will be focusing and elaborating on the third reason. It is not my intention either to revere Islam or to condemn it in this essay. It is my intention to provide a theoretical structure for the reader in order to understand Islam, and in particular radical Islam, because radical Islamist terrorist organizations (Al-Qaeda, Wahabbism, the Taliban, Hamas) now threatens more modern countries such as the United States (September 11th), India (the Taj Mahal motel), Britain, and Europe. It is not my intention to gloss over though, or downplay the intentions of extremist groups or religious ideologies, which not only threaten the western world, but also progressive Islam (See ft 6). In short, the world can't afford to take a blind eye to the Middle East and extremist Islam's intolerance and hatred, only to put pressure on that holon, within and without, in order for it to be transformed.
[vi] "In contact with the economically sophisticated and technologically advanced Western world, Islam has divided into three strong streams of thought. The first may be described as liberal [progressive] and moderate: it seeks to modernize Islam and re-present Muhammad in terms that could be appreciated and accepted by the non-Muslim world. The second that of the radical Islamist, seeks to re-create in today's world the Islam of the seventh century. The destiny of Islam is to overcome all other religions and be installed as the world religion, and its victory is to be hastened, if necessary, by violence and terrorism. The third group is uncomfortable caught in the middle. The traditionalist masses wish to take their place as equal partners in the modern world under the guidance of their religious leaders, the ulama, as history moves on. And yet this third group is aware that the scriptures of Islam, read literally, more readily lend support to the Islamist radicals than they do to the modernizing liberals." --Peter G. Riddel
- Islam in Context pg213
Progressive Islam's enemy is fundamentalist, puritanical, and extremist sects of Islam which prevent the emergence of a progressive Islam which embraces modernity (transcends) and reinterprets its tenets of faith, keeping those that are more inclusive (includes), and jettisoning, or redefining (the hermeneutics of postmodern interpretation) those that are not.
[vii] Jews, Christians, and Muslims all trace their lineage back to Abraham. Those looking for reconciliation will find it difficult using this approach though. Islam's relationship with Christian's and Jews has been tenuous at best. Although Islam labels Christianity and Jews as "people of the book" it has long had tensions with Christianity and Jews in its history.
[viii] The search for the "real" Muhammad is about as complex as that of the "real" Jesus. It's not that Muhammad doesn't have a lot of biographical material. On the contrary, there are a lot of biographical sketches of him. These collections, or hadiths, are of various authenticities, and paint different pictures of him. The different pictures of Muhammad tell more about people's biases than about who Muhammad was. Regardless, it doesn't matter what I think or what is actually the "truth" of Muhammad. What matters is that a progressive and tolerant view of Muhammad gains adherence among Muslims.
[ix] "Muhammad's many abilities were demonstrated in the comparatively brief time in which he led his growing community. The Constitution of Medina and the Treaty of Hudaybiyya testify to his ability as a political administrator. The battles and raids in which he freely participated or which he directed testify to his courage, his strategic skills, and innovations, amusingly railed against his enemies as unfair and un-Arabic. And there was his early concern, even during the difficult Meccan period, for the poor and powerless, the oppressed urban orphans (of whom he had been one) and for widows, and his willingness to give to women at least more rights than they had previously enjoyed.
But this recognition of quite positive aspects of Islam and its prophet cannot be allowed to conceal another side, a side entirely understandable in its context, but a side that sits uncomfortably with twenty-first ethical expectations. There can be do doubt that Islam was cradled in violence, and that Muhammad, through the twenty-six or twenty-seven raids in which he personally participated, came to serve for some Muslims as a role model for violence. Justification for violence thus has found its way into the pages of the Qu'ran, alongside the more generous passages promoting peace. This ambivalence of the Qu'ran on the question of violence has been used to encourage and justify the violence of extremists who have arisen from time to time in the long history of Islam, beginning with the Kharijis and represented most recently by Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida terrorist network."
--Peter G. Riddell pg 212
[x] Hadiths are written collection of sayings of the prophet Muhammad, and the Sunna is the unwritten religious guidelines for Muslim life. Oral hadiths exert about as much influence as does the Koran. Hadiths are ranked in categories of how likely they are to be true. They are sound (sahih) good (hasan) and weak (da'if). The hadiths that sketch the ugliest picture of Muhammad as a person and which justifies him as a terrorist are the hadiths of al-Tabari, Ibn Ishaq, and al-Bukhari. Unfortunately some of these are considered to be authentic by some Muslims.
--Robert Spencer pgs27-30, Malcolm Clark, pgs 121-124.
[xi] Smith, pg 222.
All surrender towards God should actually be the surrendering of the ego, of our self-image. All sacrifice should be the dissolving of the ego.
[xii] These are
- 1) To testify the belief that there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet. (shahadah)
- 2) To offer five prayers a day in worship. (salat)
- 3) To pay Zakat (obligatory charity)
- 4) To perform Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca)
- 5) To observe Ramadan, and fast (saum) during the month.
-- Yahia Emerick pg 114
Jihad is sometimes considered the unofficial sixth pillar of Islam-- Malcolm Clark, pg 282, George Braswell, pg 71.
[xiii] The Qur'an literally means "The Recitation." --The Two faces of Islam pg 9.
"But as long as we're caught up in the endgame of proving that ‘our' dogma trumps ‘their' dogma, we're losing sight of the greater challenge. That is, to openly question the perfection of the Koran so that the stampede to reach a correct conclusion about what it ‘really' says will slow down and, over time, become an exercise in literacy instead of literalism. At this stage, reform isn't about telling ordinary Muslims what not to think, but about giving Islam's 1 billion devotees permission to think. Since the Koran is a bundle of contradictions, at least when it comes to women, we have every reason to think." --Irshad Manji (a progressive female Muslim,)pg 36.
[xiv] The belief that there is "no God but God," is slightly different from the belief that God is One, although Muslims do emphasize the oneness or unity (tawhid) of God. The belief that there is only one God has unfortunately been translated by religions to mean that there is only one correct interpretation of God (hence where they derive their power). The belief that there can be "no other God but Allah," has thus come to mean that there can be "no other interpretation" of God. Sufis for their part, emphasize that there can be no other god, if God is truly one.
The Sufi interpretation of God comes closest to pantheism (not quite), which is why they are looked at with suspicion. -- Huston Smith pg 265
[xv] "Wahhabism, Stalinism, and Nazism had another hidden aspect in common. All indoctrinated followers in the mentality of ‘two worlds' that is, of two utterly separate realities within human society...
The ideological division of humanity into ‘two worlds' has been promulgated on different bases: Wahhabism applied a religious distinction, Communism a class standard, and Nazism a racial criterion. But in all cases, fanatics, repeating the fundamental error of the radicals in the French Revolution, sought to split their own societies between the virtuous, entitled to hold power and property, and the virtueless, condemned to disappear. For this reason, all three forms of totalitarianism required a constant inquisition against alleged internal enemies -traditional Muslims for the Wahhabis, Trotskyists or other dissident socialists for the Stalinists, Jews and other ‘antisocial elements' for the Nazis. In all three cases, the necessary internal enemy was presented as an agency of the ‘opposing world' : Wahhabis, including the later fanatics encouraged by Mawdudi and Sayyid Qutb, attacked traditional Muslims as unbelievers, Stalinists accused Trotskyists of being fascist agents, and the Nazis labeled the Jews as representatives of Anglo-American plutocratic finance. Finally, all three of the totalitarian collective illness, Wahhabism, Communism, and fascism, represented the stunted, underdeveloped, and deformed modernism of backward societies attempting, by a forced march, to catch up and surpass the more advanced and prosperous cultures."
--Stephen Schwartz pg 176
[xvi] In the mindset of an absolutist, there is only black and white ("you are either for us or against us"), it doesn't realize the value of a spectrum of options and interpretations (pluralistic thinking, the "shades of grey"). The value in seeing a spectrum of consciousness would do much to overcome dualistic thinking (simple "right vs. wrong" without the meaning). Although the idea of holons in Integral theory may at first seem dualistic, it admits that holons are embedded in contexts in which they can grow, and that reality is holonic (different interpretations are also valid). The problems in any group exist with those who romanticize the inside of the group (emic) while "demonizing" the outside (etic) of the group
(unbelievers, infidels or kufar, sinners).
"Hatred and bigotry are often based on what social psychologists have called the binary impulse in human beings-the primitive and vulgar tendency to define the world in terms of ‘us vs. them.' This binary impulse first attempts to find an ‘us' and then associates that ‘us' with all that is good and virtuous. At the same time ‘them' becomes associated with all that is counter to the ‘us,' and therefore the ‘other' is presumed to be not good, and even evil. What disrupts and challenges this simplistic primitive paradigm is ‘social need.' Although human societies often gravitate towards this binary instinct, the need for interaction and cooperation between different societies and nations acts as a force often inducing human societies to define themselves a way that does not exclude the ‘other.' With a sufficient amount of overlapping interests, interactions, and conscientiousness, the paradigm could shift from an ‘us versus them' to an ‘us-us' perspective." --Khaled Abou El Fadl Progressive Muslims pg 36
Fundamentalism keeps its adherents from expanding their holon and consciousness through the process of fear and keeping the wall of their boundaries rigid and uncompromising ( literal inerrancy, "damnation" of apostacy, etc). It therefore happens that when an individual begins to question this dualistic way of thinking, he or she usually suffers a "crisis of faith," (which differs from the Dark Night of the Soul,) or existential crisis. For some the absolute religious certainty of fundamentalism is much more tolerable than the uncertainty of using reason and intuition in order to understand the divine mystery which mystics and sages might see more of.
[xvii] These outsiders of the group include Muslims themselves. Fundamentalist groups are quick to label others, and de-legitimize their authority and their right to being a Muslim. Once outside they are no longer able to be offered protection as a believer. Muslims themselves are afraid to question these groups, and receive the stigma of being labeled an unbeliever, and having their own faith called into question.
"It is precisely this compassionate humanness that is missing from so much of contemporary Islam. Sadly, some of us Muslims are often quite rude to one another: not only do we brand each other as infidels, we oppress each other, we also cut each other off in speech, and are quick to anger. Words like kufr (infidelity), shirk (associating partners with God, i.e. polytheism), and bid'a (heretical innovation) flow far too easily from our tongues. The finger that is used to point up at the end of prayers towards the Heavens now points most frequently at another Muslim. That same index finger that is used to be a reminder of Divine Unity (tawhid) is now a symbol of accusation and takfir (branding another an infidel). What we are losing in all of this incivility is our very humanity. Here again Gandhi had a keen observation: ‘As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as a religion overriding morality." --Omid Safi pgs 13.
[xviii] King Faisil left the Ministry of Education in the hands of the ulama (religious leadership) in 1963, which, unfortunately, spread the ideology of Wahabism throughout Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.
"The entire generation that was born during the 1960's and came of age during the 1980's grew up on Wahhabi doctrines. Despite the ulama's special responsibility for university education, the Education Ministry as a whole became a stronghold of religiously conservative bureaucrats. The Saudi government also installed backers of the Muslim Brotherhood at all levels of educations. The curriculum used in schools focused on Islamic and Arabic studies, helping to preserve the grip of Wahabism on Saudi society." --Dore Gold pg 78.
[xix] "Simple inexpensive audiocassettes of preaching that include tirades against women and against the supposedly Western values of equality and autonomy, and that incite people to violence and in extreme cases even to murder opponents, have flooded the streets and marketplaces of many Muslim communities. They are broadcast on public buses; on loudspeakers of mosques; and on the radio." --qt in The Trouble with Islam, Irshad Manji, pg 167.
[xx] Egypt's president, Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1950's sought to unite all of Arab in the Middle East. This idea of Pan-Arabianism or Nasserism, tried to forcibly unite all of the Middle East under forced secularism and nationalism. It failed spectacularly. The ideas of socialism, secularism, and nationalism all failed in the Arab world and gave rise to fundamentalist groups, groups that grew up violently in reaction to it. --- Fareed Zakaria, Inside Islam, pgs 235-260.
[xxi] Sayyid Qutb and Abdulla Azzam were both well-educated men who were very outspoken critics on the modern West, Christianity, and non-believers. Both taught at King Abdul Aziz Univerity in Suadi Arabia and shared a young student named Osama bin Laden. Their writings continue to influence terrorists. -Dore Gold, pgs 95-103.
[xxii] Wahabism was founded by Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab (1699- 1765) who traveled from Arabia to Iraq. He believed that Islam had been corrupted by foreign practices, and waged a militant war against shirk (polytheism). He even destroyed the tombs of the companions of Muhammad, which had become objects of veneration. His Wabbabi creed ideology of the "true" Islam was very exclusive and restored the idea of Jihad to a military struggle. During the last decades of the 20th century, Wahabism reemerged as the leading doctrine of Saudi Arabia, where it (along with the Muslim brotherhood) helped the Saudi government gain power and loyalty. In turn, the Muslim World League, an international organization dedicated to the spread of Islam, was given Wahhabi control by Saudi Arabia. A number of Saudi charities, arms for Wahabism, go under inconspicuous names; The International Relief Organization (IRO), The Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA), The Success Foundation, World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY). These charities have supported terrorist groups.
-- Dore Gold, (Former Ambassador to the United Nations) pgs 17-29, 73-80, 147-150, 152-155.
[xxiii] "These apologetics consisted of an effort to defend Islam and its traditions against the onslaught of Westernization and modernity by simultaneously emphasizing both the compatibility and supremacy of Islam. Apologists responded to the intellectual challenge of the modern age by adopting pietistic fictions about the presumed perfection of Islam, eschewing any critical evaluation of Islamic doctrines. A common device of apologists was to argue that any meritorious or worthwhile modern institutions were first invented and realized by Muslims. Therefore, according to the apologists, Islam liberated women, created a democracy, endorsed pluralism, and protected human rights, long before these institutions ever existed in the West. Nonetheless, this was not asserted out of a critical engagement with the Islamic tradition, or even out of a genuine ideological commitment or a rigorous understanding of the implications of the ideas and institutions asserted. The apologists simply raised the issue of Islamic authenticity in relation to issues such as democracy, human rights, and women's rights, but did not seriously engage them. According to such apologetics, all society needed to do in order to fully attain the benefits of democracy, human rights, economic development, or women's rights was to give full expression to the real and genuine Islam."
--- Khaled Abou El Fadl, The Great Theft, pgs 78.
[xxiv] Solutions to radical Islam seem to also fall into three categories:
1) The Islamist answer that "Islam is the answer."
2) The "inevitable clash of cultures" that many see as inevitable
3) Identifying and dealing with the complex social, political, and cultural aspects that fuel
Arab rage and terrorism.
I obviously endorse solution number three in this essay.
[xxv] "There are two historic clashes unfolding in the world today that appear inexorably intertwined. The resolution of one could determine the immediacy of the other. The internal clash within the Muslim world is not merely over theology. The real fight is not over the succession to the Holy Prophet that divides the Shiite and the Sunni communities. It is certainly not about the language of the Holy Quran. It is not really about the interpretations of Sharia. The extremism and militancy of Muslim-on-Muslim violence is a long battle for the heart and soul of the future not only of a religion but also of the one billion people who practice it. Fundamentally it is also about whether the Muslim people can survive and prosper in the modern era or whether linkages with the traditional interpretations of the sixteenth century will freeze them in the past. If Muslims can adjust to changes in the political, social, and economic environment we will not only survive but flourish. If modernity is dogmatically resisted, the existence of Muslims as a viable community will become vulnerable. In the extreme, Muslims will attempt to impose themselves in a messianic union of Muslim states that could provoke the external clash between Islam and the West that the world is focusing on today." -- Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West pg 275.
--Benizir Bhutto, the Former Prime Minister of Pakistan
Tragically, she was assassinated shortly after writing her book.
[xxvi] Voices such as Ishad Manji--The Trouble with Islam, -- Kaled Abou el Fadl-The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists, and Omid Safi -Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism.
[xxvii] In short the change must be all quadrant, all level (AQAL). In order for radical Islam to change, various quadrants, and levels have to be addressed, not just one. Each quadrant affects and influences the other. The social and cultural aspects (interior, left domain) of a civilization are affected by the politics and economic aspects (exterior, right domain) of that civilization. -Wilber, Integral Psychology pgs183-185.
"My premise from the beginning has been that extremism thrives under dictatorship and is fueled by poverty, ignorance, and hopelessness. The extremist threat within the Islamic world, and between the Islamic world and the West, can be solved, but it will require addressing all the factors that breed it."-Benizir Bhutto pg 317
[xxviii] Ijtihad means "independent reasoning."
"Contemporary Muslim scholars such as Abdolkarim Sorush and Khaled Abou El Fadl have been vigorously pushing the Muslim community toward reformation by reopening the gates of ijtihad and insisting on returning to a rational exegesis of the Quran. However, the dominance of the Traditionalist position continues to have devastating consequences for the development and progress of law and society in the Middle East." --Reza Aslan, No god but God pg 169.
[xxix] "There exists an enduring mythology about Muhammad's time in the city that came to bear his name, a mythology that has defined the religion and politics of Islam for fifteen hundred years. For it is Medina that the Muslim community was born, and where Muhammad's Arab social reform movement transformed into a universal religious ideology...Today, Medina is simultaneously the archetype of Islamic democracy and the impetus for Islamic militancy. Islamic Modernists like the Egyptian writer and political philosopher Ali Abd ar-Raziq (d. 1966) pointed to Muhammad's community in Medina as proof that Islam advocated the separation of religious and temporal power, while Muslim extremists in Afghanistan and Iran have used the same community to fashion various models of Muslim theocracy. In their struggle for equal rights, Muslim feminists have consistently drawn inspiration from the legal reforms Muhammad instituted in Medina, while at the same time, Muslim traditionalists have constituted those same legal reforms as grounds for maintaining the subjugation of women in Islamic society. For some, Muhammad's actions in Medina served as a model for Muslim-Jewish relations; for others, they demonstrate the insurmountable conflict that has always existed, and will always exist, between the two sons of Abraham. Yet regardless of whether one is labeled a Modernist or a Traditionalist, a reformer or a fundamentalists, a feminist or a male chauvinist, all Muslims regard Medina as the model of Islamic perfection. Put simply, Medina is what Islam was meant to be." -- Reza Aslan, pg 52-53.
[xxx] See Wilber's book Integral Psychology pgs 59-65.
[xxxi] Tahqiq masaih al-ibad, Khaled Abou El Fadl pg 157.
[xxxii] "As the Protestant theologian Harvey Cox notes, secularization is the process by which ‘certain responsibilities pass from ecclesiastical to political authorities,' whereas secularism is an ideology based on the eradication of religion from public life. Secularization implies a historical evolution in which society gradually frees itself from ‘religious control and closed metaphysical world-views." Secularism is itself a closed metaphysical world-view which, according to Cox, "functions very much like a new religion."-- Reza Aslan, pg262
[xxxiii] "The flap underscores an emerging political trend. Since 9/11, polls have consistently shown that most Muslims do not want either an Iranian style theocracy or a Western-style democracy. They want a blend, with clerics playing an advisory role in societies, not ruling them. As a consequence, Islamist parties are now under intense scrutiny." -Time magazine, March 30, 2009
[xxxiv] "It is pluralism, not secularism that defines democracy. A democratic state can be established upon any normative moral framework as long as pluralism remains the source of its legitimacy...Those who argue that a state cannot be considered Islamic unless sovereignty rests in the hands of God are in effect arguing that sovereignty should rest in the hands of the clergy. Because religion is, by definition, interpretation, sovereignty in a religious state would belong to those with the power to interpret religion. Yet for this reason an Islamic democracy cannot be a religious state. Otherwise it would be an oligarchy, not a democracy...Ultimately, an Islamic democracy must be concerned with not with reconciling popular and divine sovereignty, but with reconciling ‘people's satisfaction with God's approval,' to quote Abdolkarim Soroush. And if ever there is a conflict between the two, it must be the interpretation of Islam that yields to the reality of democracy, not the other way around. It has always been this way." --Reza Aslan pgs 262-266
[xxxv] This would go against the differentiation of modernity. Moreover the majority of Sufis tend toward political quietism ( "No god but God" pg218 ) and are looked at with suspicion. The goal of the mystic is different from the goal of society ( When Jesus said, "My kingdom is not part of this world,") Although Sufis shouldn't exercise political authority, they can help influence the spiritual character of the state. A number of Sufis have spoken out against radical Islam.
[xxxvi] "Instead of the Oneness of Being, we could have spoken of the ‘Oneness of Witnessing' (wahdat ash-shuhud) which is the other great school of Sufi metaphysical thinking that stresses, not the Object of knowledge, but the Subject. There is the witness, the object witnesses, and the act of witnessing-a familiar trio of terms, as the lover, the beloved, and love, or the knower, the known, and knowledge. The point is that the real Witness in everyone who Witnesses is God; the real Object witnessed in everything is God; and the real Witnessing in all individual acts of witnessing is God. It is Allah who is the real Lover, Knower, and the like; it is He who is the real Beloved and the Known; and He is the ultimate Love and Knowledge. The Subject is its own Object. Unlike the school of the Oneness of Being, which stresses the objectively Real, this school accentuates subjective knowledge, or consciousness, that has its ontological roots in the absolute Witnessing, the ultimate Subject, who is God. The multiplicity of witnesses, due to the innumerable mirrors reflecting the one solar Witness, give us the same image as above, but seen this time as multiple subjectivities that reflect the one unique Subject. The two perspectives are complementary: everything depends on whether one wants to emphasize the divine Object as the unique Reality or the divine Subject as the unique Knower or Witness...or in the perspective of the Oneness of Witnessing, it means that the consciousness of the soul can come only from the Consciousness of the Lord."
--Victor Danner, The Inner Journey pg214
[xxxvii] Although this essay has been focused on radical Islam, there are some beautiful things in Islam, such as the Taj Mahal, the beautiful geometric designs and abstract motifs of Muslim art and the lettering of kufic script, an art form in itself. And of course, the most beautiful thing in Muslim countries; the inherent beauty of human life and its sacredness, something both Muslims and non-Muslims tend to forget.
[xxxviii] (unattributed) The Inner Journey: Views from the Islamic Tradition pg xviii.
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