By
Rudy Barnes, Jr.
The
images are heart-rending and mind-boggling: A three-year old Syrian boy lying
dead on a Turkish beach, a symbol of the refugee crisis that has European
nations reeling; ancient and precious artifacts in Palmyra, Syria, being demolished;
and religious authorities instructing ISIS terrorists to pray before and after
raping their female hostages. And the
list it goes on, like pages from a Medieval horror story played out in real
time.
Is
this God’s will according to Islam, a religion that is projected to supplant
Christianity as the world’s largest religion by 2070? It is according to the radical Islamists of ISIS,
and a number of young Muslims from Europe and America are heeding their call, joining
ISIS to create a new caliphate that promotes murder and mayhem in the name of
God. Radical Islam, or Islamism, is as much a part
of Islam as the Crusades and Inquisitions were part of Christianity.
We
are now witnessing the horrific effects of radical Islamism. They are caused by the imposition of a form
of Islamic law, or shari’a, that denies the fundamental freedoms of religion
and speech with apostasy and blasphemy laws and subjects women and non-Muslims
to harsh discriminatory treatment. Brutal
punishments imposed under this archaic code of religious law have caused thousands
of refugees to flee areas controlled by radical Islamists.
There
is a major disconnect here. In 2007 a
distinguished group of Islamic scholars offered the greatest commandment as a
common word of faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. That common word of faith is that we must
love God and love our neighbors as ourselves, including our unbelieving neighbors
(see the story of the good Samaritan). By way of contrast, the Islamist shari’a is
entirely lacking in love for unbelieving neighbors.
Which
is the true Islam? That is a question
that only Muslims can answer. Islam is
in transition and there is a window of opportunity for moderate and progressive
Muslims to define their religion. How
can we help moderate Muslims make a
common word of faith a reality?
In
the real world, religion, politics and the rule of law are inextricably woven
together, but distinctions must be made for there to be legitimate
governance. The freedoms of religion and
speech require that governments do not favor or establish any religion. The libertarian concepts of democracy, human
rights and the secular rule of law are essential to progress and modernity, and
while they are an integral part of legitimacy in the Western world they are
absent and considered contrary to God’s will wherever radical Islamism is the
dominant form of Islam.
The
root cause of the problem is an immutable and coercive shari’a, a problem that could
be remedied if shari’a were interpreted to conform to the libertarian values of
democracy, human rights and the secular rule of law. The refugee crisis is a predictable result of
radical Islamism, and the U.S. should assist with the resettlement of refugees. One thing that the U.S. should not do is deploy
combat forces or “boots on the ground” in Islamic cultures. That would only exacerbate the problem by undermining
the legitimacy of moderate Muslim reformers.
That is a lesson in legitimacy that we should have learned in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Radical
Islamism is not the only religious factor in the refugee crisis. Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, has
warned Europe that Muslim asylum-seekers are threatening “Europe’s Christian
roots.” It is an echo of Donald Trump’s
anti-immigrant ravings about undocumented Mexican immigrants in the U.S. Germans, to their credit, are seeking to help
the refugees in Europe. It is clear that
religion has been a big part of the problem, but equally clear that religion
must be part of the solution.
Saudi
Arabia—a wealthy ally of the U.S.—has contributed to the problem but not to the
solution. It has long promoted a Wahhabist
brand of radical Islamism that gave birth to both al-Qaeda and ISIS, yet Saudi
Arabia is doing nothing to help those Muslim refugees displaced by radical
Islamism. Egypt is not as wealthy as
Saudi Arabia, but as the bellwether of Sunni Islam it continues to deny the
fundamental freedoms of religion and speech with an oppressive shari’a, lending
legitimacy to radical Islamism. And
another U.S. ally, Pakistan, does the same.
The
indiscriminate bombing campaign of the Assad regime has killed many more
Syrians than has ISIS, so the motivation of the refugees leaving Syria is not clear.
The possibility that some refugees could sympathize with ISIS rather than
oppose them is a complicating issue in the refugee crisis, but the number of Muslim
refugees coming to Europe dwarfs the number of Muslims leaving Europe for ISIS. All Muslims will determine the future of Islam,
and Muslims in libertarian democracies have opposed radical Islamism. Hopefully the influx of Muslims into Europe
will help transform Islam with libertarian values and undermine the legitimacy of Islamist terrorist organizations like ISIS.
Xenophobic
reactions in Europe to Muslim refugees could work in favor of the ISIS
objective to polarize religions and instigate a holy war, but if the greatest commandment to love God and
one’s neighbor is indeed a common word
of faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims, then those people of the book will join together to alleviate the suffering caused
by ISIS, and in so doing undermine the legitimacy of radical Islamism with God’s
love. That is God’s truth.
Notes
and References to Resources:
Previous blogs on related topics
are: Religion and Reason, December 8,
2014; Faith and Freedom, December 15,
2014; Religion, Violence and Military
Legitimacy, December 29, 2014; Religion
and New Beginnings: Salvation and Reconciliation into the Family of God,
January 4, 2015; The Greatest Commandment,
January 11, 2015; Love over Law: A
Principle at the Heart of Legitimacy, January 18, 2015; Jesus Meets Muhammad: Is There a Common Word
of Faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims Today? January 25, 2015; A Fundamental Problem with Religion, May
3, 2015; Religion, Human Rights and
National Security, May 10, 2015; De
Oppresso Liber: Where Religion and Politics Intersect, May 24, 2015; The Future of Religion: In Decline and
Growing, June 7, 2015; Christians
Meet Muslims Today, June 14, 2015; Fear
and Fundamentalism, July 26, 2015; Freedom
and Fundamentalism, August 2, 2015; How
Religious Fundamentalism and Secularism Shape Politics and Human Rights,
August 16, 2015; Legitimacy as a Context
and Paradigm to Resolve Religious Conflict, August 23, 2015; and What Is Truth? August 23, 2015.
Reference is made to the
following commentary: David Brooks on Islamist authorization for rape, at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/28/opinion/david-brooks-when-isis-rapists-win.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fdavid-brooks&action=click&contentCollection=opinion®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection&_r=0; Michael
Birnbaum and Griffe Witte on the European reaction to the refugee crisis, at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/hungarys-leader-to-migrants-please-dont-come/2015/09/03/d5244c6d-53d8-4e82-b9d7-35ec41ca2944_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_headlinesl; Ishaan Tharoor
on the reaction of Saudi Arabia and other Arab states to the refugee crisis, at
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/04/the-arab-worlds-wealthiest-nations-are-doing-next-to-nothing-for-syrias-refugees/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_headlines; Thomas
Friedman on Saudi Arabia’s support of radical Islam, at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/02/opinion/thomas-friedman-our-radical-islamic-bff-saudi-arabia.html?emc=eta1&_r=0; the Editorial
Board of the Washington Post on the refugee crisis, at https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/europes-abdication/2015/09/03/319e2cb0-5265-11e5-9812-92d5948a40f8_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_headlines; Hugh Naylor on
the Assad regime killing more Syrians than ISIS, at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/islamic-state-has-killed-many-syrians-but-assads-forces-have-killed-even-more/2015/09/05/b8150d0c-4d85-11e5-80c2-106ea7fb80d4_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_headlines.
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