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Oct 16, 2001

From Caroline`s Expert Forum

Peter Occhiogrosso

"The Struggle for Understanding"

As I walk through
This wicked world
Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity,
I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?

And each time I feel like this inside
There's one thing I wanna know,
What's so funny 'bout peace love and understanding?
What's so funny 'bout peace love and understanding?
Nick Lowe

If God had pleased, He could surely have made you
one people (professing one faith).
But He wished to try and test you
by that which He gave you.
So try to excel in good deeds.
To Him will you all return in the end,
when He will tell you of what you were at variance.
Quran, 5:49 (translated by Ahmed Ali)

Less than a week after the World Trade Center attacks, I was addressing a group of almost three hundred people at Omega Institute, the country's largest alternative learning center, located in Rhinebeck, New York -- less than a hundred miles from Ground Zero. Although Caroline Myss had invited me there to give a talk on the chakras, she quickly asked if I would discuss the teachings of Islam in light of the terrorists' statements, and answer questions from the audience. I'm not a Muslim, but I've studied the religion for the past ten years, and I count the late Sheikh Nur al-Jerrahi, an American-born master of Sufi Islam, as one of my first spiritual teachers. And so, after lunch break the next day, I explained the basic teachings of Islam, told the life of the Prophet Muhammad--a great mystic as well as a religious and social reformer--and discussed the role of Islamic fundamentalism. Then I asked for questions from the audience.

One of the first questions came from a woman who wanted to know whether it was true that, according to the Quran, any Muslim who kills a Jew will go to heaven. I should point out that Omega generally gets a well-educated, religiously tolerant crowd. You have to be pretty tolerant just to come to a place where Buddhist monks, Jewish Kabbalists, Sikhs, and qigong masters brush robes with Celtic shamans and Wiccan priestesses. But the distortion of Islam implicit in that woman's question gave me some idea of how deep our misunderstandings reach. But when people feel threatened -- the way we all have over the past month -- they generally react negatively and irrationally. I liken the current situation to trying to understand how Protestant Christianity and Roman Catholicism differ by studying Northern Ireland. When the IRA bomb attack in Omagh there in 1998 killed 29 people, including a young child and a pregnant woman, nobody blamed the attack on the Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility, or belief in the Holy Trinity. Most of us realized that it was the work of delusional fanatics whose battle against colonialism had blinded them to the obvious fact that the intentional murder of innocents is never justified -- even during what the church defines as a "just war." Muslim terrorists who claim a basis in Islamic law for their horrific actions are about as representative of Islam as IRA bombers are of Catholic doctrine. But that doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of Roman Catholics, in Ireland and elsewhere, who believe that a host of political, economic, and social inequities in Northern Ireland need to be rectified. While we can't link the two groups directly, we can't completely separate them either.

Religions are often colored by the lives and deaths of their founders in ways that have little to do with their sacred teachings. Jesus was rejected by the religious leaders of his day and died a violent and unjust death at the hands of an oppressive colonial government. I don't think it's a coincidence that after the Christian church became dominant, it had a long history of treating unbelievers and heretics with great violence and cruelty. The Buddha, by contrast, died peacefully at a ripe old age, and Buddhism has proven to be one of the most peaceful, tolerant religions on earth. The teachings of Jesus and the Buddha both stress love and compassion for all beings, but the religions they founded followe very different paths. (The current pope, to his credit, has apologized to some of the groups the Church singled out for persecution over the centuries.)

For better or worse, Islam was born in battle, as Muhammad fought off attacks by other Arab clans who violently opposed the monotheistic message of Islam, along with his social reforms that favored women, orphans, and outsiders and threatened the limited tribal mindset of the day. Still, even in warfare Muhammad was radically different from his contemporaries. Muslim scholars point to his 13 years of non-violent struggle in Mecca -- where he "turned the other cheek," as it were -- and the defensive nature of most of his battles, as proof that the Prophet was a reluctant warrior. When Muslim forces finally defeated their opponents and entered the city of Mecca, for example, it was expected that they would slay the survivors and lay waste the city, as was the custom of that time and place. Instead, Muhammad offered peace and reconciliation, and his very generosity won many converts to Islam.

Islam spread in later years through military conquest, and because its leaders offered the conquered the choice of conversion to Islam or death, Islam has unfairly gained the reputation of being the religion of the sword. In this context it may help to recall that the Middle Eastern custom of warfare generally offered no choice at all -- the vanquished were either killed outright, enslaved, or held for ransom. Triumphant Islamic generals offered the further choice to the conquered of paying a financial tribute rather than converting. Christian rulers of that era, on the other hand, frequently offered only death or conversion to Jews and Muslims already living peaceably within their own borders.

The word Islam comes from Arabic roots that mean both "surrender" and "peace," and a Muslim is one who surrenders to the will of God. But is there any sense in which Islam does justify terrorist actions during wartime, as Osama bin Laden and some others insist? Although some Muslim extremists believe it does, today's papers are full of statements by mainstream Muslim clerics and scholars not only decrying the terrorist attacks, but also spelling out how un-Islamic and anti-Quranic they are. Here are some of the most obvious examples:

• The Quran (2:190) forbids attacking noncombatants, including women, children, and the elderly during war. Islam even forbids damaging the property of an opponent. Muhammad himself said, "Do not burn a plant or cut a tree in the territory of combatants."
• Suicide is punishable by hellfire, and killing oneself while attacking noncombatants is considered no different.
• The Arabic word "jihad" means "struggle," not "holy war." Most modern Muslim scholars insist that jihad refers to the struggle against distortions of Islam -- such as those perpetrated by the terrorist leaders themselves. Muhammad once famously referred to the "greater jihad" as the struggle against the ego -- a belief similar to the teachings of the Buddha.
• The Prophet prohibited poisoning wells, which Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, a Muslim scholar based in California, stated "can be applied to biological warfare." Muhammad also prohibited using fire to kill others, because only the Lord can punish with fire.

If all that is true, then why haven't Muslim leaders in the Middle East clarified these points? Actually, many have. According to the New York Times, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, its highest authority on Islamic law, has stated publicly that suicide bombers do not die as martyrs but as suicides, which is strictly forbidden by Islam. But the Middle East is also a center of great anti-American anger over sanctions against Iraq, which have resulted in the deaths of many innocent Iraqi women and children deprived of food and medical supplies. They view our support of Israel as lacking any clear concern for Palestinian suffering (at least until President Bush's recent statement regarding the possibility of creating a Palestinian state). But there are other, deeper reasons that are not so easy to explain in a short space.

During the Middle Ages, when the Muslim empire dominated the Middle East and stretched as far as Spain and China, Muslims may have felt less threatened by the non-Muslims in their midst and were more likely to treat them as the Prophet had originally insisted. "There must be no compulsion in matters of faith," says the Quran (2:256), which represents the voice of God. The Quran also expresses respect for "the people of the Book," namely, Christians and Jews, and urges Muslims to tell them, "We believe what has been sent down to us, and we believe what has been sent down to you. Our God and your God is one, and to Him we submit" (29:46). But large numbers of Muslims in the Middle East today feel threatened by Western secular culture and military power. It's hard to know whether the bigger threat is perceived to be from our warplanes, economic power, or MTV.

Fundamentalism, whether Christian or Muslim, fears modernity and too much freedom. In our own country, large numbers of fundamentalist Christians feel threatened by a secular government that opposes prayer in schools and the teaching of creationism, and that has legalized homosexual lifestyles and abortion. Although few fundamentalist Christians have taken the extreme measures of bombing abortion clinics and murdering doctors, that may partly be because they still hope to change the political landscape through legal means. They are increasingly targeting local school boards, for instance, and promoting conservative Christian candidates for state and local government, often surreptitiously.

As Andrew Sullivan wrote recently, fundamentalism (Christian, Jewish, or Islamic) "provides a sense of meaning and direction to those lost in a disorienting world. . . . [T]he subjugation of reason and judgment and even conscience to the dictates of dogma . . . can be exhilarating and transformative." The three monotheistic traditions of the West created valuable ethical and humanistic codes that helped to stem the savage brutality of life in their time and place, and still hold that promise. But their very belief in one God and one permissible code of conduct can also lead some believers to impose their beliefs on others. And there is no getting around the fact that a sizable proportion of Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere would prefer that their religion dominated (as many fundamentalist Christians feel about their own brand of religion). But they would also like their radical, fundamentalist Islam to dominate the more or less moderate, secularized Islamic states of the Middle East, including Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey, as well as the 80 percent of Muslims who live outside the Mid-East. And this desire puts them at odds with most of the world's one billion Muslims.

And, so, the current conflict has religious as well as political and social components, and they are all inextricably intertwined. To understand them, we have to understand at least a little about the religion of Islam and the culture into which it was born.

WHAT IS ISLAM?

Allah in Arabic means simply "the God," as opposed to the many lesser gods who had been worshipped in Arabia prior to Muhammad's arrival in the 7th century. That land (modern Saudi Arabia) was one in which warring clans dominated, women were treated as chattels, and orphans, outsiders, and anyone without a strong tribal backing faced a precarious existence. Constant warfare between rival tribes was commonplace, along with the gambling, rampant drunkenness, and female infanticide that Islam eventually outlawed. The tribes who fought Muhammad and the rise of Islam were fighting to protect their individual interests against the advent of a far more ethical, humanistic teaching. In retrospect, given the odds, it's almost surprising that Muhammad won out.

The Quran was revealed to Muhammad over a period of about 22 years, beginning in approximately 610. In those continuing revelations, God spoke to Muhammad and his growing community, giving rules for living, answering specific questions, and offering counsel for difficult situations. Among other things, Allah revealed what are now known as the Five Pillars of Islam, which every true Muslim must follow:

• Saying the profession of unity: "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God." This is the keystone of Islamic belief.
• The five-times-daily prayer ("salat"), performed just before dawn, just after noon, in midafternoon, just after sunset, and after nightfall.
• The compulsory annual charity ("zakat"), traditionally one-fortieth of a person's income and distinct from the duty of giving alms on a spot basis to those in need. Muslim tradition insists that one should never refuse a beggar.
• The fast from before sunrise to sunset each day for the full lunar month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim calendar ("sawm"). Because Muslims follow a lunar calendar, Ramadan moves by 11 days each year, and when it falls during the long summer days it can be very challenging.
• The Hajj, or pilgrimage to the Kabah in Mecca, which is expected of every healthy and solvent adult at least once in a lifetime.

Islam has no central religious leader equivalent to the Pope or the Dalai Lama. It is defined by Muslim scholars based on the Quran and the example of the life of Muhammad, contained in traditions known as hadith. As with Christianity and Judaism, scholars don't agree on every aspect of Islamic law. And like those other two faiths, interpretations range from extremely conservative (as in Saudi Arabia) to extremely secularized (as in Turkey). To some extent, Islam is engaged in a struggle within itself alongside the more visible fight of a network of extremists against the U.S. and other Western powers. It is impossible to generalize about Islam or about Muslims. Many Muslim political leaders who have been reluctant to join the U.S. assault on Afghanistan, or to lump their condemnation of the Sept. 11 attacks with a condemnation of Palestinian violence, are concerned with large fundamentalist movements that could threaten the stability of their own governments.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

At least something valuable has come out of all this struggle -- all this jihad, in the true sense of the word. We have begun to examine the causes of extreme fundamentalism and terrorism, and to try to understand a great spiritual tradition that has been distorted both from within and from without. And maybe Muslims around the world have begun to see the West a little differently too. Those who are able to watch CNN have seen the President of the United States take off his shoes and enter a mosque. They have heard the Muslim call to prayer and verses from the Quran ringing from loudspeakers at Yankee Stadium during an interfaith service for the families of the terrorists' victims, hosted by Oprah Winfrey and watched by millions. They have heard their own most trusted clerics and scholars stating forcibly, as perhaps never before, that terrorists don't go to paradise. That may not seem like much, but it represents real change.

Ultimately, change has to take place on an inner level as well. In order to kill, terrorists must be able to reduce human beings to impersonal members of some group -- a rival clan, in the language of pre-Islamic Arabia. We do something similar every day, even if our actions never verge on physical violence or outright hatred. It isn't only that we may tend to reduce all Muslims or all Arabs to potential terrorists, but that we also reduce, say, everyone who disagrees with us politically to a mortal enemy, or anyone who cuts us off in traffic to a dangerous maniac. This crisis is also an opportunity to stay alert to our own inner reactions and observe how we allow fear to drive us into small acts of intolerance.

The technological change that has begun to shrink the world to a genuine global village has the potential to help alleviate suffering and oppression by making us more immediately aware of what is going on in places like Bosnia and Rwanda. But at the same time, it opens the door for the anger of the disaffected to bring their suffering to our very doorstep. Just as our politicians have learned painfully that we can no longer pretend to maintain a hands-off policy toward the Middle East, neither can we pretend not to notice our own negative feelings of anger, resentment, and fear of others on a daily basis. That doesn't mean judging ourselves for having those feelings, which are merely part of the ancestral baggage of human nature. It does mean being willing to look at them, to bring our awareness to bear on them so that they can no longer fester in the dark. You can even follow this practice while watching the news or reading the latest reports in the papers. Observe your own level of anger, fear, sadness, or outrage. Be aware of the feelings as they come and go. The more you observe them without judging, the less power they can maintain, because these feelings thrive on opposition -- like terrorists. If you remove the resistance at the source of anger, for instance, the emotion tends to dissipate. Keep that in mind the next time someone you perceive as an enemy -- a Middle Easterner or a bank clerk, a noisy child or a barking dog -- makes you feel threatened.