Islam and jihad: Introduction

Islam and jihad
1) Words to consider carefully

"Killing the infidels is our religion, slaughtering them is our religion, until they convert to Islam or pay us tribute."

-- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, 2005

"[Islam] is a rapidly spreading religion because of its cultural and political appeal and its universal message of peace, temperance and the brotherhood of man."

- Muhammed.net

Introduction

The religion of Islam was initially cast by a man named Muhammad in the 600's. It has since split into multiple denominations; each the result of different beliefs and interpretations of Muhammad's life and sayings. The religion's practice of jihad, likewise, is a concept which defies monolithic definition and has taken different forms.

All the threats, murders, and international plots being carried out in the name of Islam and jihad today are a great part of why the two are so widely discussed in the West. This violence has become so severe and global, and so integral to the religion according to terrorists, that it is tempting to let the violence dominate the debate, which would be a mistake. There is more to evaluating Islam than being swept away by the terror act of the day, though those must be addressed. And there is more to Islam's followers than murderous extremists bent on world subjugation, though they too must be accounted for.

What is Islam?

Community. If I had to choose one word to summarize the many faces of Islam, which we'll explore, I would choose community. The welfare of the community, the honor and protection of the community, regulation of the community, submission to the community - all have high importance in Islamic culture. It's been that way ever since the time of its roots in desert Bedouin tribes. The individual is second to the community, at least in theory. This stands in rather marked contrast to the autonomy, individualism, personal liberties, and self-rule that typifies and is cherished by large parts of the modern west, especially America.

Entwined with its communal aspect, Islam can also be a very well-defined way of life. From livestock exchange rates for brides in more fundamentalist sects, to all the rules concerning what cannot be said, implied, printed, published, or illustrated about the prophet Muhammad, Islam has a plethora of civic and social rules; enough that they comprise their own legal system - Sharia law.

The appeal of such a culture is exemplified by "liberated" western women who convert to Islam, a very male-oriented religion, which Newsweek investigated in 2005. A chief response by those surveyed was that many aspects of life were "all decided" and little remained for the individual to have to "figure out".

Respondents contrasted Christianity, or their interpretation of it, as being overly burdensome in terms of not having well-defined rules about daily living; lacking black-and-white commands concerning appropriate manners of dress, acceptable behavior in different circumstances, what exactly is and isn't expected of them as women, and so forth. For the women in the article, Islam offered security by making those decisions for them, thus guaranteeing a path by which could feel right and accepted; feelings too attractive to resist. For many, that is Islam.

Islam is additionally a governmental system, or it can be. As a governmental system, Islam is a homogenous mixing of church and state. A crime against one is a crime against the other; defending one is defending the other. However, it has not always been this way. There is disagreement among Muslims as to what Muhammad's exact intent was concerning the relationship between mosque and state (a contentious point between liberal Islam and conservative Islam). Conflicting beliefs on this point are a significant cause of Muslim-on-Muslim violence, and that's been true since the time of Muhammad's death. It is still the case as certain modern problems in the Middle East and Europe reveal.

While Saddam is missed by very few, his removal by infidel (non-Muslim) forces was received by some as an attack on Islam. That's misreading the West, of course; or in certain cases is the willful exploitation of the situation by a nefarious few. But knowing that many other Muslims do not hold their religion to be inseparable from government, perhaps you can better understand why America is both cheered and jeered by different Muslim groups, and can see from where certain animosities may come.

Meanwhile in several European countries, portions of growing Muslim populations are seeking to incorporate Sharia law into their host nations' judicial systems. Adherents of the mosque-is-state mentality who live in separation-of-church-and-state places like France, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, and Great Britain are causing a great deal of friction with their hosts. The assimilation being requested of them runs counter to preserving Islamic community, and western freedoms run counter to traditional Islamic ways of life. One wonders if they sufficiently appreciate where western animosities are coming from over this.

Lastly, Islam is also a theology. The rest of my chapters will get into this, but in short I believe theology is Islam's weakest point. That which Muhammad preached and enforced had at least this benefit: it yielded the benefit of mimicking the unification Christianity was bringing to Europe and portions of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. In both cases, people separated by great distances were nonetheless being united by ideas - shared beliefs, goals, and values; albeit between Christianity and Islam - different beliefs, different goals, and different values.

So what's the goal here?

I began writing on Islam to facilitate a better understanding of the conditions which led up to the Crusades. This is a humble enough goal, and still of importance. (The Crusades did not come out of nowhere, and they did not come from the Bible or Jesus' teachings. They were preceded and largely precipitated by Islamic jihad; in particular the type that demands the death or subjugation of all non-Muslims.) So the reason I've let this discussion of Islam and jihad expand into a significant set of chapters is two-fold:

First, western audiences need greater explanation of Islamic history and beliefs. Without knowing the basic background of Muslim faith and history, how can we sort out our own prejudiced illusions from the factual attributes which truly describe the religion and the people? You know of terrorist Muslims from the news; you may also know peaceful Muslims from work or next door. They both describe themselves as Muslim - what gives? I think I can help there.

Second, too many exposés on Islam simply knock down the straw-man of "violent" Islam (sometimes called Islamism, a contentious point itself). Knocking down the straw-man isn't hard to do, and was likely all my first effort achieved. But addressing radical Islam without accounting for other variations of the religion missed the chance to shed light on real quranic Islam; and by extention, missed the chance to compare it with true biblical Christianity. That is a very valuable comparison; and one that is key to the subsequent acceptance or rejection of Islam as the correction/fulfillment of Christianity which it claims to be. I can help there as well.

Let's get started.

"We are at pains not to fight a religious war. The trouble is, our enemies are fighting a religious war, and there is nothing we can do about it."

- Mona Charon

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Islam and jihad 1) Words to consider carefully

Islam and jihad
1) Words to consider carefully