Fundamentalism, Christianity and Islam. A peaceful religion?
"While some fundamentalist, extremist Muslims may interpret the Koran to support their terrorist agenda, most Muslim scholars do not support that interpretation"
If Islam is basically a peaceful religion as many claim, then any fundamentalist, that is a person that accepts the basic of fundamental principles of a religion, would also be a peaceful person and Islamic fundamentalism should be encouraged or even celebrated by any who honestly desire peace. What is definitely true is that either Islam is not a peaceful religion, or Islamic terrorists are not fundamentalist. If a core principle of the Muslim faith is peace, then it is rather foolish to label any Muslim terrorist as a fundamentalist.
How then do liberals continually associate Islamic fundamentalism with terrorism while maintaining that we should be tolerant of the Muslim faith because it is a peaceful religion? It is my view that a great many American liberals posess a preprogrammed tendency to distrust any person who is a strong adherent to religious principles as modern liberalism espouses a set of secular values that are in continual conflict with fundamental Christian principles. Thus, fundamentalism, or any strict adherence to a set of religious moral principles, is considered undesireable regardless of the actual religious principles that a person is adhering to. In this manner "fundamentalism" becomes a negative label to be attached to any religiously motivated behavior without regard to whether or not that behavior actually is in agreement with the fundamental principles of the specific religion that is professed. To describe the Islamic terrorist as a fundamentalist when one believes that the Muslim faith is a peaceful religion is to reveal a more general distrust of all religious fundamentalism.
I offer this premise for the consideration of the community; if a religion is basically good, then fundamentalists of that faith, those who accept and adhere to the fundamental principles of that religion, are of necessity also basically good, and if a fundamentalist is considered to be evil, than the religion they profess must also, by it's very nature, be evil.
As I think my premise is without error, then I must conclude that those who rail against Christian fundamentalism are demonstrating a general contempt for the fundamental principles of the Christian religion, that by viewing Christian fundamentalism to be evil, they also view the Christian religion to be evil. To such people, Christianity only becomes acceptable when fundamental Christian doctrines are subordinated to secular moral standards, but such bastardizations of the core Christian principles would create a new and distinct system of religious belief that is "Christian" in name but not in character.
Honest men might well disagree as to what are the fundamental or core principles of the Christian faith, but any man who respects Christianity would not find fundamentalism to be objectionable. Fundamentalism is not a negative descriptor to be applied contemptuously, nor would such a respectful man describe splinter groups like the Christian Identity movement as fundamentalists. The careful observer can examine in what manner the word fundamentalism is used to discriminate between those who are genuinely respectful of the Christian faith, and those who only make a pretense of respect out of a desire to appear tolerant of our religious liberties. In this manner, the use of the word fundamentalism becomes a window in the true heart of any man, revealing both an honest and sincere respect for religious conviction, or a general animosity to the same.
The liberal is greatly inclined to describe Muslim terrorists as fundamentalists while making the claim that those very same terrorists have distorted or misinterpreted the principles of peaceful Islam, which would of course mean that terrorists are not true followers of Islam; that they are not fundamentalists.
"You see, it is the strict adherence to the literal interpretation of the text of the Bible, Koran, etc.. Of course in the case of fundamentalist Muslims the situation is also complicated by the low level of literacy among some of their followers. Consequently, those who can not actually read the Koran accept what they are told is the literal interpetation of the word of God."
I would note that this also demonstrates a general lack of knowledge about Islam as most Muslims can recite the Qur'an from memory in Arabic, even those who are illiterate. Also, the Qur'an is only half of the sacred writings that are the center of Islamic theology with the other half being the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad [saas]. It is not unlike The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints having both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. The Qur'an is considered the literal Word of Allah and the Sunnah was inspired by Allah but the words are those of the Prophet [saas]. Also, Muslims are very strict about preserving the meaning of the Qur'an and consider even a translation of the spoken words of Allah into a language other then Arabic to be an "interpretation" which is why the Qur'an is memorized in it's original Arabic as it was delivered directly to Prophet Muhammad [saas].
Islamic scholarship is also very extensive and has a very long and interesting history. It encompasses five schools of law madh'habs, four of which are Sunni, Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali and the last which is the Wahhabi or Salafi school which is dominate in Saudi Arabia and influential in much of the world.
The question then becomes, are acts of terrorism permissible under any of the schools of Islamic law?
I am certainly not qualified to provide a definitive answer to that question, but, clearly, neither are the vast majority of liberals who consider Muslim terrorist to be acting outside of the normal character of the Islamic faith. A Fatwa, a legal pronouncement in Islam issued by a religious law specialist, by the Mufti Sheikh Faysal Mawlawi examined the issue of whether or not suicide was permissible in martyr operations as suicide is generally forbidden by the Islamic faith. "Martyr operations are not suicide and should not be deemed as unjustifiable means of endangering one's life. Allah says in the Glorious Qura'n: "And spend of your substance in the cause of Allah, and make not your own hands contribute to (your) destruction; but do good; for Allah loveth those who do good."(Al-Baqara:195).
A discussion of the Fatwa can be found at the online Fatwa bank at http://www.islamonline.net/.
Wa`alykum As-Salamu wa rahmatullahi wabarakaatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
Dear brother in Islam, we appreciate your forwarding the question to us, with aim of getting acquainted with the teachings of your religion. This is what is required of all Muslims, to strive hard in seeking knowledge with which he will benefit Muslim Ummah.
First of all, we have to bear in mind that when we, Muslims, state that Islam is a religion of peace, we are not trying to prove something unreasonable or solve a crossword puzzle. Rather, we are just stating a fact backed by clear-cut evidence and unquestionable proofs. Even we don’t need to state this fact, for Islam, in itself, is self-explanatory, in terms of its meaning, its noble teachings and the core of its message conveyed by the Prophets Allah sent to mankind. At the same time, all peoples believe that peace and security should be attained through justice and equity.As regards your question, the following is the fatwa issued by Sheikh Faysal Mawlawi, deputy chairman of European Council for Fatwa and Research:
"Martyr operations are not suicide and should not be deemed as unjustifiable means of endangering one's life. Allah says in the Glorious Qura'n: "And spend of your substance in the cause of Allah, and make not your own hands contribute to (your) destruction; but do good; for Allah loveth those who do good." (Al-Baqara:195).
The verse obviously indicates that failing to spend in Allah's Cause is like casting oneself into ruin. That is the reason behind the revelation of the noble verse. Reviewing the Islamic rule: "Words should be construed as imparting general meanings regardless of their specific occasions", the meaning of the afore-mentioned verse is bound to extend to include any negligence of a religious duty; i.e. forsaking a religious duty entails casting oneself into ruin. The same applies to committing sins.
Therefore, it's quite an abysmal analysis for someone to focus on the aforementioned verse through a narrow a perspective, without taking into consideration all relevant points.
Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) strictly forbade suicide and made it clear that anyone who commits suicide would be cast into hell. But in such case suicide means Muslim's killing himself without any lawfully accepted reason or killing himself to escape pain or social problems.
On the other hand, in martyr operations, the Muslim sacrifices his own life for the Sake of performing a religious duty, which is Jihad against the enemy as scholars say. Accordingly, a Muslim's intention when committing suicide is certainly different from his intention when performing a military operation and dying in the Cause of Almighty Allah. So it is natural that the religious legal status would differ in each case, as Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) says in a Hadith: "Actions are but by intention, and every man shall have but that which he intended."
This means that martyr operations are totally different from the forbidden suicide. Concerning the Palestinians, they carry out the operations in showing resistance to the aggression launched by the enemy who has occupied their land, destroyed their houses, desecrated their sacred places and driven about four million of them out of their houses, replacing them with even larger numbers of Jewish settlements. The enemy relies on sophisticated military equipments while, at the same time, denying the Palestinians their basic human rights, killing their women, children and men mercilessly, and rendering the Palestinians powerless and incapable of defending themselves – even all the Arab countries face the same fate, lacking necessary weapons.So the Palestinians have nothing in their disposal but stones which they throw at their enemy in order to defend their country. This, despite its indication of a high morale, cannot deter the enemy this way. So the Palestinians resort to martyr operations, in which the martyr blows himself/herself up, sacrificing his life for the sake of his country and inflicting serious but reciprocal harms on the enemy.
In the light of the above-mentioned facts, I believe that those missions are a sacred duty carried out in form of self-defence and resisting aggression and injustice. So whoever is killed in such missions is a martyr, may Allah bless him with high esteem. I call on every Palestinian not to hesitate in carrying out such operations as long as they are the only way of making Jihad and are made with an intention of sacrificing one's life for the Sake of one's religion and nation. I wish that other scholars who hesitate concerning such a matter to reconsider their views according to what I have said and what other scholars have said. May Allah guide us all to what is right."
Also, it’ll be beneficial to read:
Justice... for Peace and Security.
Allah Almighty knows best.
What is interesting is that Islam is described as a peaceful religion but then goes on to justify suicide bombings as the fulfillment of a religious duty.
We can also note how Islamic suicide bombers are not outcasts from their own societies, ridiculed and repudiated by the communities from which they arise. Rather they are literally poster boys, and now girls, plastered on the walls of Palestinian schools.
An ignorant person might read of the Prophet's [saas] general prohibition against suicide and easily conclude that the terrorist of 9.11 where acting outside of the principles of the Islamic faith, but a deeper inspection clearly reveals that this is not the case when participating in a Jihad.
Is Islam a peaceful religion? Perhaps when it is not engaged in a holy war, a Jihad against Israel and the West.
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