The rise in extremist organisations, such as ISIS, Al-Shabab, Boko Haram and several other off shoots of Al-Qaeda, all purporting to be “Islamic”, is very dangerous, disturbing and most insidious to the image of one of the great monotheistic religions, with over two billion followers all over the world, namely Islam.
The horrors committed by those terrorist groups caused immeasurable harm to Muslims and non-Muslims alike although, in terms of sheer numbers, it is Muslims who suffered the greatest damage, physically, mentally and spiritually. In the minds of many undiscerning people, all Muslims are held to be somewhat culprits by association, naively accusing Islam of being inherently “violent”.
This misconception has, unfortunately, led to increasing Islamophobia in the West, a phenomenon that is as disturbing as the much hideous notion of anti-Semitism, which, in its most extremist form, was behind the most horrible crime of genocide in the 20th century committed by the Nazis against the Jews. The crime took place on a Christian soil, to be denounced in later years by the Vatican.
It is, of course, ridiculous to judge any religion in terms of the acts of some individuals who claim to be acting upon its teachings and invoking them as a justification for their hideous crimes. Such judgements will lead us by their distorted logic to hold all Christians responsible for the Inquisition, the Crusades, the Holocaust and even for the more recent massacres of Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 committed by a few fanatic Serbs.
Similarly, the burning alive of a Palestinian youth by angry retaliating Jewish settlers, or the gunning down of 27 Palestinian worshippers by the Jewish fanatic Baruch Goldstein in Hebron would be used as grounds to accuse Judaism of being a religion inciting hatred of non-Jews.
It is incumbent upon Muslims to salvage their beautiful religion from the claws of extremists
Other similar examples can be cited from the histories of Islam, Christianity, Judaism and, indeed, even from the histories of other non-monotheistic creeds such as Hinduism and Buddhism (Mahatma Gandhi himself was killed by an angry Hindu youth). Unfortunately, the history of humanity shows that violence, bigotry and hatred are no monopoly of any one culture, religion or civilisation.
However, once these facts have been established, it becomes imperative upon the followers of the religion being extorted or manipulated by a few fanatics purporting to be acting in its name to examine, or re-examine, the basic percepts of their own religion. Such an examination is essential to find out how, through certain erroneous interpretations or theological arguments, the religion in question was abused, hijacked or interpreted out of context to suit the needs of the criminal mindsets of those parasitic and narrow-minded bigots who would pathologically invoke the Quran, the Bible or other sacred texts as the source of their inspiration to violence.
Such processes of critique of religious thought are far from destructive because they help the religion under scrutiny to evolve and adapt to changing times, thus turning it into a dynamic force for good rather than reducing it to just a static set of dogmatic rules.
Christianity and also, to some extent, Judaism have undergone such critique since the rise of neo-Platonism, which influenced also some Medieval Muslim thinkers, the Protestant reform, the Enlightenment, leading to the Industrial Revolution and, later, to 20th century modernism. It was this evolution which, ultimately, resulted in modern European secularism and the separation between the Church and the State.
Freedom of conscience flourished and the concept of citizenship became the cornerstone of modern societies, rather than religion.
Ironically, the seeds of this modernism were sowed in Europe by the early pioneers of the European Renaissance who were strongly influenced by the progressive Medieval Muslim thinkers of the late Muslim era in Spain. There, Muslim, Christian and Jewish minds built together a great civilisation, most notable among whom was Averroes (1126-1198), a rationalist philosopher and a great interpreter, albeit critic, of Aristotle.
There was also the celebrated mystic Ibn Arabi (1165-1240) who, though a devout Muslim scholar, boldly adopted freedom of belief and accepted all creeds as if they were his own because he believed in a religion of love that encompasses all worshippers of the divine.
Despite its rich cultural heritage, some modern-day thinkers claim that Islam, being the youngest of the monotheistic religions, did not evolve as Christianity and Judaism did.
In his book The Crisis of Islam, Bernard Lewis, for example, claims that Islam has yet to undergo a process of self-critique and reform in order to become compatible with modern Western democratic values. Only through such revisionism would Muslims discard the concept of Jihad against the infidels and the dream of the Caliphate. The process will also lead to modernising the strict Sharia rules as well as the emancipation and empowerment of women.
Such accusations, however, are not well-founded because, since the 19th century, some Arab and Muslim countries have undergone a process of modernisation and renovation of religious concepts, long before countries such as Japan and China opened up to Western ideals.
The early pioneers of Islamic renaissance, such as Al Afghani (1838-1897), Muhammad Abdu (1849-1905), Alkawakibi (1856-1902) and the champion of women liberation, Qasim Amin( 1863-1908), all espoused modern values while rekindling the spirit of the Medieval Muslim philosophers who upheld rationalism and tolerance.
It was Muslims, they argued, who transmitted knowledge of mathematics, Greek philosophy, medicine and architecture to Europe. The fruits of these reformers resulted in the modernisation of Arab countries such as Egypt, which adopted a progressive Constitution in 1923. In fact, Egypt was a constitutional monarchy until the July 23 revolution against the monarchy led by Jamal Abdu Nasser.
Libya had its own Constitution in 1951, amended in 1963. The Gaddafi revolution suspended the Constitution and Libya slipped into dictatorship. Similar stories of rise and fall of democracy can be cited from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and other Arab and Muslim countries. Unfortunately, the rise of military dictatorships and totalitarian regimes, though, ironically, secular in nature, led, coupled with economic, social and political factors, to radicalisation of Muslim youth who thought that salvation lied in extreme ideologies, such as Wahabbism, widely spread in Saudi Arabia.
The United States used some of these zealous youths in its war against Russia in Afghanistan and this,eventually, created the Frankenstein monster of Al-Qaeda. Jihadist youths increased in number, adopting anti-Western stances, considering democracy and the liberation of women as anathema.
An ideology of hate spawned movements such as the notorious ISIS, even more lethal than its predecessor Al-Qaeda.
The Arab Spring, which started as a genuine call for democracy and modernism, fell into chaos.
The vacuum left by the fall of totalitarian regimes in countries such as my own, Libya, led to hideous attacks on innocent people, such as the recent crime in Sousse.
The problem, however, does not lie in Islam, which, if properly interpreted, can be a tremendous force for good, compassion, tolerance and progress. It lies rather in those few people who have held this great monotheistic faith captive to their pathological minds.
It is, therefore, incumbent upon Muslims, in the first place, to salvage their beautiful religion from the claws of extremists. A new renaissance, such as the one that we witnessed in the 19th century at the hands of the brave pioneers mentioned above, is needed.
Western forces should also refrain from manipulating extremists and Islamists to serve their own political agendas. They should acknowledge their own responsibility in destabilising the region only to then abandoning it to chaos and violence.
The holy Quran states (verse 32, chapter 5 “Whoever kills a soul, unless for a soul or for a corruption done in the land, it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one, it is as if he had saved mankind entirely…”
This verse should be the guiding philosophy for all mankind as we unlearn war and march towards peace and harmony.
Saadun Suayeh is a former ambassador of Libya to Malta.