Guest Post: Charles Cameron on In a Time of Religious Arousal
In my view, the most powerful response to the current global “jihadist” movement will come not from advocates of democracy (whether backed up or not by military force or threat of force) who will naturally appear to be interfering in affairs between the soul and its God that do not concern them – but from people within the jihadists’ own religious tradition.
Noman Benotman, one-time leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and colleague of bin Laden and Zawahiri, wrote an open letter to bin Laden dated 10 September 2010 / 1 Shawwal 1431 AH, which the Quilliam Foundation just released under the title “Al-Qaeda: Your Armed Struggle is Over“.
Benotman’s letter opens with an invocationfrom Qur’an57:16:
Is it not time for believers to humble their hearts to the remembrance of God and the Truth that has been revealed.
The text of Benotman’s message is only four pages long, and I recommend reading the whole of it – but have selected this single passage as representative of his critique:
What has the 11th September brought to the world except mass killings, occupations, destruction, hatred of Muslims, humiliation of Islam, and a tighter grip on the lives of ordinary Muslims by the authoritarian regimes that control Arab and Muslim states? I warned you then, in summer 2000, of how your actions would bring US forces into the Middle East and into Afghanistan, leading to mass unrest and loss of life. You believed I was wrong. Time has proved me right
Benotman closes:
In urging you to halt your violence and re-consider your aims and strategy, I believe I am merely expressing the views of the vast majority of Muslims who wish to see their religion regain the respect it has lost and who long to carry the name of “Muslim” with pride.
For those who are concerned at the influence of Anwar al-Awlaki on English-speaking youth, there’s a detailed 130-page critique of his approach to global jihad from a strict Salafist perspective available on the web:
On the topic of suicide bombing / martyrdom operations viewed from an Islamic perspective, I’d suggest reading the Ihsanic Intelligence “Hijacked Caravan“:
And for a glimpse of the wider possibilities offered within the Islamic world, Bassam Tibi’s brief summary in his book, The Challenge of Fundamentalism: Political Islam and the New World Disorder is worth considering:
To me religious belief in Islam is, as Sufi Muslims put it, “love of God,” not a political ideology of hatred. … In my heart, therefore, I am a Sufi, but in my mind I subscribe to ‘aql/”reason”, and in this I follow the Islamic rationalism of Ibn Rushd/Averroes. Moreover, I read Islamic scripture, as any other, in the light of history, a practice I learned from the work of the great Islamic philosopher of history IbnKhaldun. The Islamic source most pertinent to the intellectual framework of this book is the ideal of al-madina al-fadila/”the perfect state”, as outlined in the great thought of the Islamic political philosopher al-Farabi.
Irani and Funk’s “Rituals of Reconciliation: Arab-Islamic Perspectives” indicates something of what an Islamic approach to truth and reconciliation might look like:
No doubt there’s a great deal more that onemight say, but that must suffice for now.
Charles Cameron.
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zen:
September 11th, 2010 at 5:44 am
Hi Charles,
.
I’ve been wondering, for some years, where the radical, racist right came up with " Phineas Priesthood". It’s been floating out there for decades since, at least, the murder of radio talk show host Alan Berg by neo-Nazis, and you answered it.
Charles Cameron:
September 11th, 2010 at 6:22 am
Heh: I have been working up a more detailed account of "Phineas: ancient and modern" to post here for some while now — it’s in two parts, each about 2,500 words long in its present draft, and includes Maccabean and Mormon instances of the story as well as those that I’ve recounted briefly here…
.
One of these days.
zen:
September 11th, 2010 at 6:44 am
Charles, you are out of my ken with the Maccabeans – I’ll have to wait until you bring the draft out into the light of day. 🙂
Remembering 9/11 | Crossroads Arabia:
September 11th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
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Remembering 9/11 | Crossroads Arabia:
September 11th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
[…] are addressed, Hindu and Buddhist extremism only briefly. I think the article worth your attention. In a Time of Religious Arousal Charles […]
Bryan Alexander:
September 11th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Charles, did you see Eric Rankin’s analysis about the role of Eden in science fiction?http://www-personal.umich.edu/~esrabkin/sf/SF_Eden_Complex.htm
J. Scott:
September 11th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Charles, Excellent post. I’m currently reading Islamic Imperialism, so your post provides a welcomed balance. Your paragraph that ends with "but from people within the jihadists’ own religious tradition" is exactly right, however many would differ on "how" to change the attitudes "within." I believe much violence in the name of religion can be attributed to a sense of desperation on the part of the believer. Zen and I have exchanged an email on this topic, but I believe it worth restating that most religious believers aspire to virtue which is supported by a code of morality (the code of the Jewish/Christian/Islamic traditions are similar in the macro). The 20th Century brought the rise of moral relativism, where man displaced the deity and became a "god" unto himself; and thus found himself lacking a supernatural anchor for his definition of right and wrong—for virtue. The West embraced the state, by and large, and displaced religion as an arbiter of virtue and morality. (I’ll email you an essay by Theodore Dalrymple published in the WSJ recently where he took on the phenomena of sentimentality…) In many parts of the Islamic world religion has not been displaced, they see the moral implications of the Western "way," as it were, in our exports; namely media, and recoil. Most want simply to be left alone (as in Afghanistan), but others, lacking opportunities/access to a modern life, see jihad as the only viable alternative, and (Bonus!) it is sanctioned by their holy writings. The jihadis are in a do-loop fed by religion, pride, (disgust?) and global media princes who care only about ratings—essentially, virtue be damned. I would humbly submit that West could do worse than rediscover cultural virtue. We’ve built magnificent machines and luxuries, but man, as the writer of Ecclesiastes aptly pointed out, remains unchanged.
J. Scott:
September 11th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
BTW, my comments were not meant as a justification for violence in the name of religion, but rather an possible explanation.
Charles Cameron:
September 12th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
A quick thanks to Bryan and Scott — both of you have sent me scurrying off in new directions!
Conflict: Addendum « coyote blue:
September 14th, 2010 at 4:51 am
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Jane Sampson:
September 15th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
There’s an endless number of gullible goyim dying for Israel.