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Burning in the Name of GodBY BELLACALEDONIA  on FEBRUARY 4 ,  2015   •   (  31   )

By Alastair McIntosh

Fast on the back of Charlie Hebdo, the callously choreographedburning of the Jordanian air force pilot, Muadh al-Kasasbeh, is likelyto reinforce in the eyes of much of the world the idea that Islam issynonymous with murder, and that all religions are a danger, because(turning a blind eye to secular warmongering), “they lead to war.”

Earlier this week I was in a Pakistani-Scottish friend’s newspapershop. He said he had been listening to an imam interviewed aboutthe Paris atrocities on Radio 5 Live. The poor man squirmed as hetried to explain that true Islam is a religion of peace. The militants, heargued, had stolen its good name. However, the station was givinghim no quarter. “But the Qur’an says this, and Muhammad said that,”and to my young friend, it felt as if his religion, and with it is culture

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and identity, were themselves being executed over the air in akangaroo court.

So, what does the Qur’an and the Prophet (peace be upon him) sayabout violence? First, it is true that all three of the Abrahamic faiths –Judaism, Christianity and Islam – speak in differing degrees ofnuance, either because they express an historical evolution of thehuman understanding of the divine, or because they are muddledmessages, or because they seek to speak to people in differingcontexts and differing stations of understanding.

For example, Christian “just war” theory hinges most strongly onpost-Christ teachings attributed to Saint Paul where, in Romans 13:4,the authority of a state ruler is legitimised on the basis that, “hebeareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revengerto execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” This is further augmentedby the arguments of Augustine and Aquinas, albeit in torturedcontravention of the Christ of the four gospels who taught andpracticed, not “just war” theory, but full-on nonviolence.

The acceptance of “just war” theory was the victor’s narrativeimposed on an earlier pacifist Christianity as it became cooped intoConstantine’s Roman Empire around the year 312. Such is the groundto which most mainstream Christians today feel reconciled – theexception being what the World Council of Churches recognises asthe “historic peace churches” of the Mennonites, the Quakers and theChurch of the Brethren (German Baptists). Augustine’s theory has theadvantage, at least, of placing constraints on warfare, including suchprinciples as waging war only as a last resort, by “legitimate”authorities, proportionately, and with safeguards for non-combatants. This remains the lynchpin of military ethics as isexplicitly taught in most western military academies to this day andas encoded in the Geneva Conventions.

In comparison, Islam holds much the same principles, some of themeven more authoritatively encoded. The core Qur’anic text mandating“just war” is Surah II:190:

Fight in the cause of GodThose who fight you,But do not transgress limits;For God loveth not transgressors.

Those limits are set out in various hadiths or oral traditions of theProphet Mohammad (peace be upon him). As P.J. Stewart points outin his chapter, “The Prophet at War” in Unfolding Islam, the hadithsspecify:

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•        Not to kill women and children (Bukhari 32)

•        POWs to be treated humanely (Bukhari 52)

•        Not to mutilate the dead (Sira 388)

•        No-one should be killed by burning (Bukhari 52)

On such a basis, the overwhelming majority of contemporary Islamicthinkers hold that terrorism is un-Islamic. (Some extend this to all ofmodern warfare that kills by firepower.) For example, Scotland’s mostsenior Sunni Muslim, Dr Bashir Mann, a past president of theGlasgow Central Mosque, has been outspoken for years on this pointin his letters and articles in the British and Pakistani press. He drawsattention to Surah V:35 of the Holy Qur’an: “If any one slew a person[unjustly] it would be as if he slew the whole people.”

In a current effort to redeem the good name of Islam, the MuslimCouncil of Britain features prominently on its website a forthrightresponse to the Charlie Hebdo massacre:

Nothing justifies the taking of life. Those who have killed in the nameof our religion today claim to be avenging the insults made againstProphet Muhammad, upon whom be peace. But nothing is moreimmoral, offensive and insulting against our beloved Prophet thansuch a callous act of murder.

To return the focus to Jordan, in 2004 King Abdullah II, out of concernover the use of Islam to justify terrorism, brought into being theAmman Message. Here leading scholars from all major branches ofIslam declared infighting between Moslems to be anathema. Todaythis would include the Islamic State’s war on the rival Shi’a tradition,though until it sprung upon them, the Jordanians had not anticipatedthe rise of such a force as ISIS.

When an organisation or individuals kill innocent parties, or kill byburning, they violate fundamental principles of Islam. Such is theidolatry of violence – the worshipping (or “giving worth towards”) of afalse god – the perversion of Islam into which alienated, angered andemptied young Jihadists are drawn. It is the antithesis of the openingverses of the Qur’an, known as “the Essence of the Book” –  “In thename of God (Allah), the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise beto God, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds.”

Even within the terms “just war” theories, even without recourse tothe stronger ethos of nonviolence, terrorism perverts religion, and allreligions, to idolatry. The problem with idolatry and the reason why itremains a pressing modern spiritual problem is that it “can’t get nosatisfaction.” It is a false-satisfier. It falsely satisfies the spiritual

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imperative, irrupting into life (as it can do) as an innate human need.That need, arguably reflecting ultimate reality – the need for profoundinterconnectedness, the need for a life that is embedded in love. InWar is a Force that Gives us Meaning the Pulitzer Prize-winning warcorrespondent, Chris Hedges, reveals the psychologicalconsequences of worshipping a god that demands human sacrifice tothis end and is only satisfied by death (pp. 10 & 162):

In the beginning war looks and feels like love. But unlike loveit gives nothing in return but an ever-deepeningdependence, like all narcotics, on the road to self-destruction. It does not affirm but places upon us greaterand greater demands. It destroys the outside world until it ishard to live outside war’s grip. It takes a higher and higherdose to achieve any thrill. Finally, one ingests war only toremain numb. The world outside war becomes, as Freudwrote, “uncanny”. The familiar becomes strangely unfamiliar– many who have been in war find this when they returnhome. The world we once understood and longed to return tostands before us as alien, strange, and beyond our grasp.

The motivations of young European Muslims who go off to fight for theIslamic State – and they are numbered more in dozens than inhundreds – is probably very similar to bygone Christians who went offto the crusades. In his definitive study written in Scotland, A Historyof the Crusades, Sir Steven Runciman described crusader ideology ashaving been, “nothing more than a long act of intolerance in thename of God, which is a sin against the Holy Ghost.”

We won’t start to tackle the roots of terrorism unless we recognisethat we’re all in this together. It’s not just a thing about Muslims. Ifreligions get the blame, where can be found their roots ofredemption? What must it be the spirituality priority of people of pureheart to draw out, and stand up for?

There is now an ever-growing litany of the effective use of nonviolencein the face of lethal conflict. Christianity has the gospels of Jesus toprioritise and thereby redeem itself from the “just war” principleslegitimised by the Paul of Romans 13, Augustine and Aquinas.Judaism has the later prophets – Isaiah and Micah – with theiranticipation of beating “swords into ploughshares”. Progressive Jewssuch as Rabbi Michael Lerner courageously advance this todaythrough the outstanding magazine that he edits, Tikkun. But what of

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Islam?

Behind the headlines, Islam has a long and venerable history ofnonviolence. One example was the astonishingly courageousleadership of Ghaffar “Badshah” Khan – the “Muslim Gandhi” – whoseunarmed followers stood steady, delegitimising their oppression, assoldiers of the British Raj pumped lead bullets into their chests in theMassacre of Qissa Khawani Bazaar (“the Storyteller’s Market”) inPeshwar in 1930 – still just within living memory.

More recently, the world witnessed the power of well-organisednonviolent Islamic resistance during the Arab Spring. This very muchremains “work in progress”. Nevertheless, it has exposed a newgeneration to the politics of nonviolent direct action.

Most overlooked of all, including by many of Islam’s scholars(perhaps it is too radical?), has been the Islamic basis of nonviolencewithin the Holy Qur’an itself. Here Surah V:30-35 gives the Islamicversion of the world’s first murder, the story of Cain and Abel. WhenAbel sees the impending outcome of his brother’s spiritual jealousy,rather than retaliate in kind he tells Cain:

If you stretch out your hand to kill me, it is not for me to kill you,because I  respect God, the Cherisher of the Worlds. You will only drawdown sin upon yourself.

To this, the authoritative Qur’anic commentary of Abdullah Yusuf Ali,published in Jeddah, makes the observation: “To the threat of death[Abel] returns a calm reply, aimed at reforming the other.”

Yesterday the world learned that Lt al-Kasasbeh had been executed:placed in an iron cage, doused with petrol, and set alight. Thismorning we awoke to news that Jordan, in an initial stroke ofretaliation, executed two of its prisoners including a failed femalesuicide bomber. Petrol continues to be poured on the pyre. Newmartyrs as recruiting sergeants. Only the hideous god of violencewins.

Like German Christians after the Nazis, Islam has to come to gripswith having been hijacked. It needs time, and breathing space, andnot to be pushed into corners and humiliated. Who knows, if we everdeployed Trident, we too would have to come to grips with our innatepotential for atrocity. We, too, await the Chilcot Report.

All of us are facing a common human problem. Religion might be itspresenting face, its stolen and perverted basis for legitimacy, but thatis why religions need to reconnect with their deeper spiritual bases ofnonviolence. Such is the spiritual task of this century, if not

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millennium. Violence only seems to work on a short temporalwavelength. We must tune in to the long wave.

In the name of Allah: “the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful” (Qur’anI:1).

In the name of Christ: “My Kingdom is not of this world: if it were,then my followers would fight to save me…” (John 18:36).

In the name of Jehovah: “And they shall beat their swords intoploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall notlift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”(Isaiah 2:4).

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31 replies 

johnrobertson834February 4, 2015 • 16:22

Modern fighter-bomber pilots will, in many cases, have burnedcivilians alive. From Guernica through Dresden and on to Falllujah,how many have we burned?

Reply ↓

IABFebruary 4, 2015 • 18:33

It still doesn’t justify it – this was staged and publicised aspropaganda.

Reply ↓

johnrobertson834February 4, 2015 • 18:38

No, I know, but it’s to be expected when we launchhorror casually and callously into the world. Ourbombing is and has been monstrous beyondwords. Guernica, Hiroshima and Shock and Awewere intended as propaganda too.

E JenkinsFebruary 4, 2015 • 17:07

Some interesting points, but they should not obscure the very basicproblems associated with the spread of Islam in the west. Central toIslam, is Sharia law which is highly discriminatory against women,gays and non-Muslims.

Reply ↓

IABFebruary 7, 2015 • 00:56

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I would totally agree with you. When you live in an Arabcountry, you comply with their rules and, if you don’t you’regone. I have always admired this. There needs to be a veryclear declaration made when the Scottish state isestablished of the ‘rules’. If you want to comply thenwelcome, if you don’t then bye. If we believe in equality,then there’s one law, no plural marriage, inheritancefollows the law of the land and there is no establishingstates within states.

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paulcarlineFebruary 4, 2015 • 17:17

We need above all to reflect on what led to the current cycle ofviolence and what sustains it. It began essentially after the collapseof the U.S.S.R. and the (temporary, in the light of the recent ‘re-demonisation’ of Russia) end of the “Cold War”. Those who createwar on the grand scale and benefit from it are not the relatively smallnumbers of “fundamentalists” who exist in all religions, but the armsmanufacturers, the militaries and the politicians (all of whomultimately serve the financiers).Their interests lie in perpetual war and the means to serve that aimwas to invent a new enemy – Islam – which was very conveniently themajor religion in countries which held much of the world’s oilreserves. The creation of the meme of a “clash of civilisations” and ofthe alleged threat of a resurgent, and more intolerant, Islam began inearnest in the US in the mid-1990s, with the first FBI-inspired and -equipped attack on the World Trade Centre.It is now known that the Patriot Act and the invasion of Afghanistanwere prepared before September 11, 2001, which was the required“new Pearl Harbour” event called for by the neo-cons in their 2000PNAC paper “Rebuilding America’s Defenses” – “Pearl Harbour”because it was to be an apparently unprovoked and unforeseenattack from outside that would provide the excuse – and the publicbacking – for the pre-planned attack on Afghanistan. That attack wasas much a war crime as the subsequent invasion of Iraq, based asboth were on palpable lies.We live every day with the consequences of the “success” of theSeptember 11 false flag attack and the criminal failure of journalists,politicians and many others to expose it as a lie and as the gigantic“psy-op” it was. That success allowed the real perpetrators (oftenreferred to accurately as the “perpetraitors”) to repeat the con overand over again. John Kerry referred accurately to the Charlie Hebdo

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attacks as “France’s 9/11″ – accurately in the sense that it, too, was agiant false flag psy-op which has already resulted, predictably, inpromises of even more surveillance, restrictions on civil liberties –and more funding for the police and military to counter the inventedthreats.Hitler consolidated his power by creating fake enemies and scaringthe public into silence. We seem to be headed in the same directionas we abandon Muslims to their undeserved fate.

Reply ↓

Lesley DockseyFebruary 4, 2015 • 17:31

Good one Alastair!Last year I went to an event at Hilfield Friary labelled “Do we need warany more?” The discussion inevitably turned to the Just War theory.Because words and their use are my thing, I pointed out that:No war is ever “just”The just war theory is only used in order to JUSTIFY war, an entirelydifferent kettle of fish.In his article about the Charlie Hebdo attack and freedom ofexpression

http://www.icontact-archive.com/uY4CWN-9Ks3n5LBkjUdhzTPRHgcSPm1n?w=4,

Jan Oberg made a very important point.The writers and cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo insisted on their right tofreedom of expression (though, if you look at their work, their anti-Muslim cartoons are not just graphic but bordering on pornographic).If you insist on that right then you must accept the consequences,which in this case were violence and death. What you cannot do islabel yourself as a victim.One sure step forward to peace is to put aside playing the victim, andfor all of us to take responsibility for our actions. Easy to write, not soeasy to do!

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AntonFebruary 4, 2015 • 19:53

Though I’m all for taking responsibilities for one’s actions, Icannot see that the statement that “If you insist on thatright (to self expression) then you must accept the

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consequences, which in this case were violence and death.What you cannot do is label yourself as a victim” stands upto even the most casual examination.

The article you cite gives the following example of freedomof expression – “I have the freedom to do a lot – tell thelady next to me at a dinner table that she is ugly (etc)”. Nowlet’s suppose that the lady concerned, whom you’ve nevermet before, is so outraged that she stabs you in both eyeswith her table knife and blinds you for ever.

Are you really suggesting that in this case you must simply“accept the consequences” and that in no sense are you a“victim” of violence?

I can’t see how this can make any sense at all. In this casethe woman’s reaction would be utterly disproportionate (inmy opinion at least; you may take a different view) and Isuspect if this happened to you, you might not be muchimpressed by being told that you should just shut up aboutbeing a victim of violence and that you should just “acceptthe consequences” of your remark.

Reply ↓

gonzalo1February 4, 2015 • 21:35

Pornography is everywhere and it is permitted for we live ina free world and is a matter of opinion what constitutespornography. The internet is, of course, full of it becausethere is a demand for it. Where do we draw the line.Jan Oberg (whoever he is) talks absolute drivel in trying tojustify the extreme violence that took place in Paris. Theypublish because they can. They and we, live in a free worldand not in a country dominated by religiousauthoritarianism. We have freedom of speech; mostArab/Muslim countries don’t. That is not our fault, it is thefault of their despotic and fundamentalist governments.I am old enough to remember the film The Last Temptationsof Christ. There were other films which insulted Christianityand were condemned in some circles as blasphemous.However, nobody died. Christianity took it on the chin andthen moved on, for the film itself was mediocre.The Charlie Hebdo attack was not the first of its type:

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people and organisations have been violently attacked inBelgium, Holland and Denmark. There have been murders.What Jan Oberg should be trying to do is defend freespeech, as well as denouncing and condemning religiousintolerance and aggression. In his ultra political correctpathetic stance he condemns millions of women and gayswho suffer terribly from the extremists. He should sparethem a thought, not the terrorists.

Reply ↓

layzellicardiffFebruary 4, 2015 • 17:50

I really don’t know how essays like this will do anything to help allthose people suffering hideous violence from ISIS, or help to stopwhat they’re doing. Dancing around what Islam is supposed to be –and Christianity for that matter – is all very interesting but gets usnowhere. I’m sure the Jordanian airforce pilot wasn’t thinking aboutwhat the Quran says when he was locked in a cage and burned alive.

Reply ↓

IABFebruary 4, 2015 • 18:30

I am in the Middle East just now and have just spent a daywith Arabs from Libya, Jordan, Saudi, the UAE, Oman andKuwait. The break time discussion was that Daesh was notIslamic, was destroying the reputation of their religion andabsolute and utter horror at the fate of the pilot. These aretypical reactions here and I’m sure that things will movequickly and often quietly. The Gulf Arabs don’t want Daeshto destroy the peace in their countries and they havetremendous security resources – keep watching. TheJordanian pilot, will have been praying at the end so hewould have kept the Quran in his mind throughout. Justremember – he was our brother.

Reply ↓

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sean mcgeeFebruary 4, 2015 • 19:12

All religions are toxic. It amazes me that when the religious dosomething heinous they are considered to have the “wrong”interpretation when, in fact, it can be traced to the inerrant “word ofgod” revealed to them exclusively. I suggest that those seeingreligions as inherently peaceful spend some time with RichardDawkins learn and start, metaphorically, to fight back against violentignorance.

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ianpatterson2014February 4, 2015 • 19:23

I’m with you here, IAB (though physically, as safe as I can be, inScotland)…

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IABFebruary 7, 2015 • 00:41

There is no danger here and I wish people could know theArabs as I know them – friendly, open, funny and kind.Obviously, there are vast differences in the politics of theareas but people are people everywhere. The MSM have agreat deal to answer for. Just keep in mind that the averageMuslim in the Middle East is just like us and Saudi is notthe Gulf.

Reply ↓

Alastair McIntoshFebruary 4, 2015 • 20:22

I pressed the “send” button on that article to Bella with trepidation,having felt driven to stay up most of the night writing it as I had thebackground knowledge. A response like IAB’s makes it feelworthwhile – thank you. Can I just mention that in the course of

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copying over to Bella the links embedded within parts of the textremained in place, but for some reason lost their colour, and so are(currently) invisible. I’ve asked Bella if “she” can find a moment tosort it. Meanwhile, hovering the mouse over the text will cause themto show whereupon they can be clicked and work, and they’re goodlinks for those interested in these issues. Also, the para following thecolon about Chris Hedges lost its italics indicating that it is a quotefrom his book.

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bellacaledoniaFebruary 4, 2015 • 21:17

Some formatting fixed (with apologies). I blame some lowerminion in the Formatting Department!

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Alastair McIntoshFebruary 4, 2015 • 21:19

Thanks, Bella, for taking some time out of your evening tofix the invisible links and reset the Hedges quote. Probablyone of those PC-Mac compatibility things that aren’tsupposed to happen.

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DarienFebruary 4, 2015 • 21:53

Religion does not kill; people kill. Warmongers are not religious;warmongers are evil.

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MBCFebruary 4, 2015 • 23:47

There are plenty of suras in the Quran that are bloodthirsty. Then

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there is the example of Muhammad personally beheading 600 Jewishmales after a battle. Hatred of the Jews in particular is prominent inthe scriptures of Islam especially the Quran. There are also thesepeaceful verses you quote which are routinely produced by apologistsfor Islam. Scripturally, there is much in Islam that is dodgy and topretend otherwise is naive.

But scripture is far from the whole story. I’ll agree with you there.Islam is also a way of life. It is also a system of community basedethics. The praxis of the daily prayers, the five pillars of Islam, prayer,fasting, alms, pilgrimage is the core of the religion. That’s all prettylaudable, and that’s the Islam that most Muslims believe in.

The unfortunate thing is the rise of political Islam in the 20th centuryas a post-colonial counter-narrative, the hijacking of scripture awayfrom the traditional scholars, the ulema. The ulema offered carefulexegisis and hermeneutics on the more ‘difficult’ verses. Butextremists want to use Islam, its reputation and cultural power, fortheir own ends in order to rebuild the Islamic empire, a new caliphate.They are taking these ‘difficult’ verses at face value without contextand consider the world is divided into Dar al Islam (house of Islam)and the rest of the world that is not Islamic is the House of War. Theirsis essentially a secular project using the cover of religion. It aims toreverse modernisation (seen as being equivalent to westernisation).It’s anti-western, it wants to reverse the current political order andreinstate Islamic hegemony worldwide, a new imperialism.

Political Islam is all about power, pure and simple. But to pretendthere is no link to scripture is misguided.

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DarienFebruary 5, 2015 • 09:43

They are not the first to use (or rather misuse) religion as aconvenient excuse for barbarism. That does not make themreligious. They have a grudge against others, pure andsimple. It is human nature to seek ‘revenge’ forwrongdoings, perceived or otherwise. A warmongercommits an evil deed; hence, warmongers are evil. Any linkwith religion is tenuous. The MSM like us to thinkotherwise, of course. It is de rigueur for our mostly secularsociety to ‘blame’ religion when the opportunity presentsitself.

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tartanfeverFebruary 5, 2015 • 11:05

‘It is human nature to seek ‘revenge’ forwrongdoings’

or is it Human Behaviour ?

DarienFebruary 6, 2015 • 09:44

Our behaviour reflects our human nature:

“Human nature refers to the distinguishingcharacteristics—including ways of thinking, feelingand acting (i.e. behaviour) —which humans tend tohave naturally ”

“Human Nature is the product of humanpersonality and human character. “

Alastair McIntoshFebruary 5, 2015 • 00:25

I agree with your drift, MBC, but I’m not suggesting there’s no link toscriptures in violence conducted in the name of Islam. I amsuggesting – as I put it in paragraph 3 – that in the scriptures of theAbrahamic faiths we may be looking at a number of cross-currentsthat includes historical evolution in the human-divine understanding,texts that have been editorially contaminated, and materially that ishistorically situated.

If you go back to medieval Europe, even early-modern Scotland,Catholics and Protestants did to one another the kind of things thatthe Islamic State does today. I saw an image going around today ofthe Jordanian man in the cage juxtaposed with the burning of hereticsor witches. These things were considered normal, indeed, they werefor the hygiene of the community. Going back further, the HebrewBible (or “Old” Testament) is full of atrocities – Moses’ genocide ofthe Midianites in Numbers 31, David proving himself by going off andculling 200 Philistine (today a.k.a. Palestinian) foreskins in 1 Samuel

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18:27, etc,etc.. These reflect the human realities of those eras. It’sbeen said that when Moses came along with “an eye for an eye” itrepresented progress: a limitation on the level of retaliation, aslowing of the spiral of violence. Jesus comes along and puts an endeven to that with “turn the other cheek”.

To me, no matter what our faith background if we have one, what’sexciting is this ability constantly to view these ancient scriptures withfresh eyes. In Christianity, Jesus never promised the New Testament.He never even promised the gospels. Only the “paraclete” – thepresence of the Holy Spirit (or “Ghost”), and that becomes the lensthrough which we must discern scripture. That is why I loveRunciman’s comment about the crusades having been “a sin againstthe Holy Ghost” – because it sold Christ short. There’s such goodtheology around these days that deals with these issues, issues thatthe likes of Dawkins completely sidesteps in favour of setting upstraw men. I think, especially, of books like Walter Wink’s “Engagingthe Powers” and Marcus Borg & Dominic Crossan’s “The Last Days”,which unpacks Mark’s gospel as a profound encoded attack on thedomination system of the Roman Empire. I choose to be a Christian,much appreciative of interfaith, because I think that Jesus lived outthe spirituality of nonviolence so profoundly, revealing a love thatnever could be killed. But equally, I treasure looking at the scripturesof others – especially the problematic parts that people canexperience like a spiritual prison, and seeing how they can be moredeeply understood – perhaps transformed. Like in Luke’s gospelwhere Jesus says, “I come to bring fire to the earth, and wish it wasalready kindled” – and I’d be sitting there like I once was on a retreatand thinking, “Oh no, he’s completely blown it there – a gift to hellfirepreachers,” or, “That’s been slipped in by malicious editing.” Thensuddenly it occurs to you – “hang on – this means the fire of theSpirit, the fire of divine love.”

In “The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance”, the German liberationtheologian, Dorothee Soelle (who coined the term, “Christofascism”),speaks of the need to move from a “Hermeneutic” (or way of diggingfor stuff) “of Suspicion” towards “a Hermeneutic of Hunger.” I lovethat. What is it that we can find in these texts that feed our innerhunger? The more I dig, the more I find, and the hungrier I get. That’swhy, in spite of religion being such an embarrassment andsometimes a disgrace, I’ve not given up yet.

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MBCFebruary 5, 2015 • 15:50

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I’ve not given up yet either and like you I choose to be aChristian because I find Jesus’ words and example soamazing. I have spent a lot of time with Sufis in Turkey andJerusalem and I learned a lot about God from Muslims. Theculture and arts of Islam are admirable in so many ways. Asare Muslims themselves. But Islam both attracted andrepelled me and I think the Quran in particular is deeplyproblematic. My Turkish Sufi friends seemed to think sotoo… but never said so directly… ‘Ah! The Quran’ they wouldsay, ‘that has to be VERY carefully interpreted…’. Theyseemed to place more importance on practice, particularlythe practice of drawing close to God in dhikr, zikr, and inthe reading of the great medieval poets and mystics ofIslam. And in the traditions of their tariqqas. The Quranseemed secondary, even tertiary.

Islam used to be a culture of secondary orality… that is, itwas a literate culture, but few adherents were literateenough to engage directly with the primary scriptures andthose who did were specialists who were highly educatedand subjected them to multiple contextualisations. Thatkept the worst of the Quran from escaping and being‘misunderstood’ by the ignorant multitude. But now thenon-specialist multitude is able to read, and is reading theQuran, in translation, in their own language and they arereading it at face value including the violent versesdeclaring war on the infidels and Jews without any contextor specialist knowledge of the entire corpus of Islamicscholarship which the ulema used to make sense of what Ithink is a rambling and incoherent document cobbledtogether by Muhammed’s supporters for political andideological purposes decades after he died.

OK, I hear you say, ‘But that’s what Jesus’ supporters didtoo’, except Jesus’ followers appear to have been a moreliterate and professionally educated group who puttogether a more coherent set of words, the gospels. Plusthey were not involved in a war against the Romans either,whereas Muhammed’s supporters were engaged in imperialexpansion.

Sure, after Christianity became the faith of the Romanempire it seems to have taken on a war-like edge, youmention Augustine’s ‘just war’ doctrine, but that wasactually centuries after the gospels had been written andthe core of Christ’s essentially pacifist and spiritual

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message and key doctrines had assumed some sort ofshape.

It always struck me as weird that Muslims will not read theolder scriptures of the Abrahamic faith. We Christians readand study the Old Testament, though we are not Jews, andwe find much wisdom to guide us there. Christian scholarsstudy Hebrew and Aramaic. But despite Muslims acceptingthe Jewish prophets, and Jesus, they have nothing butcontempt for our scriptures saying they are contaminatedby mistranslation. The few curious who do read the gospelsare often blown away by the words they find there.

After meeting so many amazing Sufis I got interested inIslam and began reading the Quran. I just found it such anappalling text on so many levels I have struggled tounderstand what others find so interesting and valuable init. It seems to me that what is admirable in the traditionalMuslim faith is in spite of Muhammed and the Quran, notbecause of them. I think Islam basically absorbed Christianand Jewish spirituality in the Middle East as Muhammed’ssupporters gained more power, so that it became morecompelling for Jewish and Christian subjects to ‘convert’officially to Islam, and that is what Sufism is.

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Alastair McIntoshFebruary 5, 2015 • 17:02

That’s a fascinating set of perspectives, MBC. I toofind the Qur’an very difficult to read. The AbdullahYusuf Ali edition (which is the translation given tome by a Moslem friend, and one of the topversions on Amazon) has a cumbersomeness ofEnglish language (see the passages I scanned atthe top of this page) that often takes multiple re-readings to grasp. I don’t think it’s just a matter oftranslation. I’ve found the same difficulty inlooking at other translations – though perhaps ifany Muslim scholars are reading this they canmake recommendations on that matter.

What I like about the Yusuf Ali version is thequality of its commentary. From time to time I’ll

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pick it up, browse the commentaries, and onlythen read the associated verses. Of course, it isthe same problem with large chunks of the Bible.There I use the HarperCollins Study Bible (NRSV)with its annotated commentaries and often, thesebring fusty old material back to life.

In contrast, the gospels require much lesscommentary. Many of their passages cut straightto the heart – a bit like those opening lines of theQur’an do. But I say that as one raised within aBiblical culture, so it might be very different forthose who lacked the benefit of Outer Hebrideantotal immersion!

For people who ask me “what’s it all about?” Ikeep a wee stock of Luke’s gospel in a singlevolume pamphlet modern translation. Luke, orMark, are the most approachable (John’s tooadvanced on the mysticism for starters, andMatthew’s a trip in places, but he gets a bit rabidabout “the Jews”. Mark is also great for Zen-likeclarity and brevity, but I love the human warmth ofLuke, the “beloved physician”, and his evidentsympathy for women. Incidentally, somewhereabove I referred to Borg & Crossan’s “The LastDays” – it should have been “The Last Week”.

Because I am by choice a Quaker, my primaryreference point in faith is not scripture, but themovement of the Spirit; the actual experience ofthe the divine from within, and between people. Ifind this allows one to be more relaxed inapproaching the problems in one’s own traditions.That said, I have had the experience, on prolongedsilent retreat, of experiencing the Bible “comealive” as it were – the living reality behind thewords on paper. I cannot help but think that fordevout Muslims it’s probably the same kind ofdynamic at play. What matters is the inner spiritand this, if we allow it, will become the lensthrough which to read the words.

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Why bother with any of this “time-conditionedbaggage”? Only, that it has shaped the world’shistory and continues to shape current affairs. Plusa little more. As one shifts from heady interfaith“dialogue” to an interfaith “appreciation” of theheart, the imaginative ground of faith begins toshift. As the prayer of the Iona Community put it,we “find new ways to touch the hearts of all” – andto be touched perhaps by all. The great Hindu-Christian scholar, Raimon Panikkar, said “Peace isparticipation in the Harmony of the Rhythm ofBeing” (http://goo.gl/ceL0F7 ). I’ve looked, but Idon’t see another way.

MBCFebruary 6, 2015 • 14:15

Thanks for this scholarly reply. I agree with youabout the authority of the Holy Spirit being moreimportant, ultimately, than scripture. But scripture,especially the gospels, can just be mind-blowing,as in John, ‘and the truth shall set you free’. Thissends a shiver down my spine every time I read it.So I think the two work in tandem. I think the Sufisseek the Holy Spirit too, by ‘drawing close’. Theywant to experience directly the presence of God intheir zikr, dhikr in a way that western Christianityhas always fought shy of since the Reformation. InIslam there is the concept of burak allah, usuallytranslated as the grace of God, the horse that tookMuhammed through the seven heavens atJerusalem, but I’m not sure it carries the sameadditional sense of being inspiration orenlightenment and transformation that the HolySpirit has for Christians. It’s more like a blessing,well-being, than an altered transformative spiritualstate of consciousnrss or a deeper understanding.

But my real point is that in the twentieth century awhole revolutionary literature of political Islam hasdeveloped in opposition to modernisation (viewed

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as ‘westernisation’) through Hassan Al Banna inEgypt, who formed the Muslim Brotherhood inEgypt in the 1920s. A similar movement took placein India at Deoband, the Deobandis, and thesehave ignited and fused with the fundamentalistanti-modern creed of the Wahhabis in Saudi whichwas exported to mosques across the world bySaudi petrodollars in the last four decades.Political Islam is frequently violent and intolerantand uses the Quran and other foundationalscriptures to create an anti-imperial narrative andpolitical ideology that is as pernicious anddangerous as it is soul destroying. It’s powerfullytoxic and provides a secular narrative whichpurports to be religious duty. Given the ‘difficulty’of the Quran’s more violent verses for all but theablest scholars, it’s powerfully seductive for youngMuslims who feel trapped in a secular world withall its complex problems and want simple answersto restore ‘order’.

So two extreme ideologies collide; the extremismof political Islam, and the extremism of westernneoliberalism and neoconservatism. The latter isthe real spark which is being profoundlydestabilising to modernising communities, andeven in the more sensitive parts of modern Europe,in the outlying areas like Greece, and Spain, evenScotland (though our problems are far less) it ishaving impacts, causing people to question andrebel against the forces that are driving it. And allpower to them.

I don’t feel it should fall to us Christians to critiquethe difficulties of the Quran and the ease withwhich they are ‘misinterpreted’ by power-hungryhotheads reacting against extreme capitalism.That would be disrepectful. All I am saying is weshouldn’t collude with the denial myth that theyare not there. Rather, Muslims should do their bitto rein in these ‘misinterpretations’ and we shoulddo our bit, by reining in and critiquing thefundamentalist orthodoxies of neoliberalism and

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those forces that promote them. Because that iswhat is sparking the Islamist reaction – unevenmodernisation, and control of the process byshadowy unaccountable power elites.

It is our moral, modern, Christian, duty tochallenge these extremist neoliberal orthodoxies.As they are profoundly destabilising.

Alastair McIntoshFebruary 6, 2015 • 15:30

Oh, magnificently put, MBC. Yes, I don’t think most of thewest has any idea how neoliberalism, and especially itsearly playing out in the 1970s Third World debt crisis, hashurt and stirred the ire of these peoples who had alternativecultural values. One of my most cited papers, co-authoredwith a former student, is on the history of usury prohibition– http://goo.gl/OO1p26 – and since it came out I’ve had somany emails – probably one a fortnight – from Muslims allover the world grateful to see their position being not justunderstood, but appreciated. We forget that theindependence hopes of so many newly fledged countrieswere stifled in part because of how they were hooked intodebt. The Islamic system, of sharing in equity but notscrewing down with debt, would not have resulted in thesame suffering, because the lender would have had to carrythe can for their bad lending decisions by shared loss ofequity. And that’s just one example of how advancedcapitalist mores destabilised many an independent stateand led to a hatred of the west’s new form of colonisation.Most people in the west hardly understand that point, yet itcomes through clearly in the voices of earlier Islamicradicals – a great source, mainly Shi’a, is “Pioneers ofIslamic Revival” that Zed Press published about 15 yearsago.

None of these things excuse the violence. They do help tounderstand and contextualise it.

We’re probably the only ones left following this thread now.I’d be fascinated to know who you are, or whether I alreadyknow you. My email is mail@alastairmcintosh.com . Gowell.

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richardcain2February 5, 2015 • 08:10

We can argue forever about which passage of Scripture says what andtie ourselves up in all sorts of theological knots, but at root, all 3Abrahamic religions have two main problems: intolerance andcheapness of human life.

Any system which proclaims itself as the “one true faith” is inherentlyintolerant. Until such religions can recognise plurality and the valueof other people’s views, they are condemned to fight against oneanother.

Any doctrine which promises a glorious eternal afterlifesystematically devalues this one life that we have here and now.People who truly believe this will always be prepared to sacrifice whatthey have for the promise of something better.

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MontyFebruary 5, 2015 • 20:52

Well said and sadly the conflicts within a faith are oftenmore bitter than between faiths. The exaggeration of minordifferences whether they be in the area of religion, politicsor race all too often led to violence, murder and at the mostextreme genocide. The human races inability to see whatwe share and what should unite us is all too oftenoverwhelmed by the forces of division and tribalism

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Alastair McIntoshFebruary 5, 2015 • 22:25

That “exaggeration” of minor differences” to whichyou refer, Monty, resonates with what Freud, in“Civilization, Society & Religion,” magnificentlycalled “the narcissism of small differences.”

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I find that expression very interesting, becausenarcissism is pretty much anther word for egotism,albeit with allusions to retarded stages inchildhood. That’s exactly the spiritual problem ofmuch religion: that ego’s “me, me, me” narcissismusurps the soul, and God becomes co-opted to thepatriarchal ranks of unresolved father dynamics.

At the same time, such “shadow” work (now in theJungian sense) is the coal face of spiritualdevelopment. Spiritual development is onlyrequired because something is undeveloped.There’s hope hidden there.

Rae BradyFebruary 8, 2015 • 16:54

I would like to thank Aliaster for his initial very enlightening writing.Ihave been very frustrated that more Imam’s hadn’t come forward tocondemn the terrorists,so it was great to know about Dr Basher Mannand the others,I am Dyslexic so am not going to try and get involved in the debatebut will pass this out to others in the hope that it can be takenforward .I have recently joined unite for Peace and campaign against the armstrade,and am involved with many interfaith groups and feel this is theway forward,.

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