WHEN SOMEONE says some of the passages of the Qur'an are violent and Islam itself is a political religion, what do you call that kind of criticism? It's an important question. Strangely enough, I've heard it called "racist," which seems very odd. Islam is not a race. I've also heard it called "Islamophobia," which is also strange, because it is not a phobia.
It is religious criticism. But it's more than that, because Islam is not merely a religion. Islam is also a political system with political goals. So instead of racism or Islamophobia, we could call it religious or political criticism.
But if you call it that, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it. In a free society, it is perfectly legitimate to criticize religious doctrines and political systems. It's perfectly all right in a free country, for example, to point out that the Catholic church frowns upon birth control, or that communism and free enterprise are incompatible. Anyone who protested statements of that kind would accurately be seen as absurd.
So when someone explains the political ideology contained in the Qur'an, it is a completely legitimate activity, and anyone who calls it racism or Islamophobia either doesn't understand what they're saying, or, more likely, they are trying to censor the criticism. That kind of censorship is out of line in a free society.Ironically, the fact that exponents of pure Islam (the jihadists) will not tolerate criticism of Islam is one of the main criticisms of Islam. The fact that the Qur'an itself is adamant about disallowing any criticism of the Qur'an (and calls for a death sentence for doing so) is one of the most legitimate things to criticize about the Qur'an.
2 comments:
Three of the most powerful institutions in any society are
government
business
religion
Beause they are powerful institutions, it is necessary that they receive criticism. For, if the people were not allowed to criticize powerful institutions, those institutions would have unfettered power and control over the people.
The idea that we are not allowed to criticize Islam is a completely anti-American and anti-Western idea.
Great essay, CW.
Thanks, Pastorius. I was thinking of this article as something we could send to people when we try to tell them about Islam and they react by calling us racist or Islamophobic.
I've been called both and worse, and it doesn't make any sense. And I think presented this way, it helps clarify the issue.
This is one of the biggest barriers, in my opinion, to the West protecting itself from Islamic encroachment: There is no precedent for how to think about Islam in a way that doesn't seem unfairly prejudiced. We have to make new distinctions, new ways of understanding what is legitimate and what isn't. Then we will be free to protect ourselves from a legitimate threat without being actual racist bigots.
These are distinctions and understandings our own society needs to make. It needs to become widespread in OUR society. This article was not written for Muslims.
It was written for those non-Muslims who don't understand why anyone would want to criticize a religion or a group of believers and who think it is unfair or arrogant.
We readers of the IBA obviously understand perfectly well that Islam needs to be publicly criticized. But the people WE talk to often do not. Many of the articles on the IBA are good tools to help cross that gap in understanding. They are articles we can send to those of our friends who don't yet understand. Mine is a contribution along those lines.
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