WHO SPEAKS FOR ISLAM

Introduction

Ayoob (2007) asserts that Islamic nuances are seldom understood by many people in the western world. Most non Muslims seem to think that terrorism is the face of Islam or that global terrorism is a threat upon their survival. However, there is a need to look at other manifestations and influences within the Islamic religion. This is because a number of changes have taken place in this religion and the world needs to accept that Islam is not something that can be categorized as either black or white. The essay shall attempt to look at the multifaceted narrative that constitutes the Islam faith.

Features of Islam that give it its Universalist and unitary character
Cesari (2004) explains that Islam had a unitary dimension because of its teaching on ways of life. The role that religion took up in people’s life was central to this unity. Additionally, Muslims were united because of the commonality in gender based roles within their nation. This was coupled by their deep respect for their lifestyle and their mode of life. Consequently, Muslims all over the world regarded one another as members of one community irrespective of their race, ethnicity etc.
The latter mentioned author also claims that Islamic unity was propelled by the nature of their political leadership. It is a known fact that many Muslim countries give a lot of political precedence to their religious leaders. Additionally, authority in such cultures must be respected at all times. This attitude can be clearly seen by minimal adoption of the congregational model in these states. Until only recently, countries in the Middle Eastern region were led by royal families or religious entities. This kind of political approach brought about a lot of Unity in the religion. (Cesari, 2004)

Esposito and Mogahed (2008) claim that most Muslims are united by their religious teachings: In fact, their researches showed that among all Muslims polled in their book, a large percentage of them who opposed terrorism activities or any violent acts used words from their holy Koran to back their claims. In fact, some even quoted sections of their scripture that condemned the destruction of innocent lives. It was also interesting to find that those who supported terrorist acts never used religious reasons to back their claims. Most of them relied on political reasons or certain ideologies. For instance, some asserted that Western states were repressing Muslim countries in order to dominate their resources.

From these findings, it can postulated that most Muslims are in fact united by the teachings of their scriptures. The fact that large shares of Muslims are moderates means that most of them are united by the need for peace in their country. The discoveries made by Mogahed and Esposito (2008) indicate that many perceptions held by Americans about Islam are mistaken. One of these is the fact that most Muslims believe in co-existence with their neighbors or in living with peace with other communities. These beliefs are derived from their holy scriptures and they are the reason why the religion has such Universality about it.

Why diversity and flexibility developed and how it continues to develop within the framework of Islamic oneness
Cesari (2004) explains that diversity and flexibility began developing in the Muslim world after forces of globalization became real in these states. The consumer culture which gained its origins from the western world penetrated into the Middle Eastern society thus making nationalism a less important factor in uniting them.
Many Muslims were now at crossroads as some of them felt that they were exposed to greater religious information because of the improved communication channels. These Muslims felt that they now had an opportunity to grow their faith by having a deeper understanding of it.

Cesari (2004) further adds that the other category of Muslims that emanated from increased globalization are those Muslims who feel threatened by western culture. This category claims that the collective nature of Islam is slowly deteriorating and that this is eroding the true meaning of Islam. In other words, the latter researcher claims that the differing faces of Islam began cropping up when there was a struggle between the personal versus the collectivist approach.

Burke (2003) claims that prior to the mid nineteen nineties, Afghanistan came close (but not entirely) to the stereotypical White House definition of radical Islam. According to members of the Bush administration, terrorism is spearheaded by a close nit group that has a central leader. However, this perception lasted until the year 2001. Thereafter, a new face of radical Islam emerged.

In the world of Islam, there are a number of individuals, cells and group that are totally different from one another. However, these entities are linked to Islamic terrorism because of the fact that they all believe in similar ideologies. In other words, Al-Qaida should not be seen as the major threat to western countries, instead a wider less organized Islamic movement should be regarded as the real enemies of the western states.

Burke (2003) believed that this diversity in Islam developed after the September eleventh attacks. After 2001, there were certain assertions that Baghdad was closely associated with these attacks. However, there was no proof to validate these claims. Additionally, the United-States-led invasion of Iraq was coupled with the arrest and subsequent hanging of Saddam Hussein. Again, the US did this as a side show; their main target in Iraq was to capture the Al-Qaida. Since there was no proof that Saddam was related to the pentagon bombings, then the US had not done very much to eliminate the threat of terrorism.

In fact, the opposite thing had occurred; the US had given Islamic militants fertile ground to criticize the western world. Most of them claimed that the western world would like to see any form of unity within the Islamic world destroyed, consequently, a number of them felt that in order to maintain this unity, they must try to fight western aggression against the Muslim world. In other words, the September eleventh attacks and subsequent US reaction strengthened the coz of Islamic militants and further created diversity in beliefs among the Islamic community.

The emergence of differing world views was very crucial in determining a shift in Islamic practices. The new world view of anti-Americanism arose after an attack against Iraq and Afghanistan. These two countries were considered as some of the most influential nations in the Arabic world. Consequently, no matter how much the US was justified in attacking these nations, holders of the latter mentioned worldview could now substantiate their claims through the attscks. (Ayoob, 2007)
A new and more dangerous movement was created among the Muslims after the US led invasion against Afghanistan and Iraq. This was because the Islamic militants felt that they had been unduly and unjustly treated. Consequently, they needed to fight back to eliminate this possibility.

Other emerging world views came out of a result of differing views on international threats. Certain Muslims believed that the west was interested in controlling Middle Eastern countries because of the fact that there were numerous petroleum resources. This idea made certain Muslims unite against western nations because they believed that they would lose if they did not step up their actions against them.

Additionally, more Muslims began being more radically informed about political and economic issues within their countries. Consequently, these reasons led to heightened consciousness and were fertile ground for manifestations of various categories of political Islamism within the region.

An evaluation of the growth of political and militant Islam
Burke (2003) describes his experience as a London reporter working in Afghanistan. Through his interactions with the Middle Easterners, Burke (2003) was able to trace some of the roots of militant Islam. The latter author asserts that too much emphasis has been given to Osama bin Laden as a major driver of Islamic terrorism within the world. However, this author believes that there is too much Focus on Osama as a key figure in global terrorism. Additionally, the western world seems to believe that if they were to eradicate the Al-Qaida, then global terrorism would be eradicated. However, this is a misguided idea owing to the fact that terrorism is as a result of a proliferated and disorganized hatred of Islamic fundamentalist against the western world. By trying to eradicate the Al-Qaida, the United States and other western states are in fact strengthening them and should instead place greater focus on bridging the information gap of the western world against the Muslims or vice versa.

Militant Islam grew its roots in the misunderstanding of the Americans about the Islamic people. Most Americans are highly ignorant of the Islamic culture yet they are the ones that are busy making policies about this same category. In fact, research shows (Esposito & Mogahed, 2008) assert that in order for one to fight global terrorism, there is a need to win the support of Muslims around the world. If the United States fails to change its image in the international arena, then it is likely to create greater enmity between itself and its external environments.
There are three reasons that the latter authors identified in fueling militant Islamism in their book and they are
• Misdiagnosis of situations
• Hypocrisy in international policy
• Selection of leaders that perpetuate Muslim stereotype reasoning

Esposito and Mogahed (2008) revealed the fact that there is growing anti Muslim bias in the United States. This attitude has permeated into the political scene and many leaders rush to make haphazard decisions about Islamic countries without identification of the root causes of problems within those countries. This creates a situation in which American foreign policy towards these countries worsens rather than mends the tensions there.

Secondly, the latter authors also identified the fact that when foreign policy within the US reflects hypocrisy, then it was likely to fuel the hatred against Islam. Most US foreign experts want to depict the fact that their country respects Islam and that the US’s mission is not to destroy this religion. However, many Americans often make anti-Muslim sentiments on radio stations that are then aired out to the rest of the world. Radical Muslims who hear this may use such sentiments to discredit the American government by pointing out their double standards. It should also be noted that this legitimizes the political coz of most Militant Muslims whose major purpose is to eradicate western influence in their lives.
Misinformation about the Islamic religion also has another effect; it creates fear in the populace. Most Americans (66%) have an underlying bias against Muslims. This causes some of them to elect leaders who perpetuate these stereotypes. For instance, when President elect Obama was campaigning, many critics tried to use his middle name, Hussein, as a reason to disqualify him from serving in public office. If these sentiments were considered thoroughly, then it may have prevented the US from selecting a leader who would promote reconciliation in the country.

Harik (2004) asserts that Political militants within the Middle East especially in Lebanon grew out of a need to transform society. The latter author did her research in Lebanon for a period of two decades. She claims that in the eighties and nineties, Hezbollah was a radical Islamic organization. It conducted a series of attacks against the United States and Israel. In fact, according to the US, Hezbollah is the second only to Al-Qaida in terms of Islamic militancy. The latter author claims that this terrorist organization managed to permeate Lebanon’s mainstream politics because it changed its ways from being an Islamic military group to becoming a major political party in Lebanon. In fact, they borrowed ideas and principles from other Islamic groups that were designed to fight off foreign occupation of their countries. Hezbollah is currently rooted between the Lebanon Israeli border and their influences were largely responsible for incorporating the Syrians and Iraqis in their issues.

Harik (2004) also explains that the Hezbollah as Islamic extremists grew out of the need to fight for the Shiite Muslim faction. This was also compounded by support received from other countries in the Arab world who regarded them as heroes. This was because many of them oppose the existence of Israel. Consequently, Hezbollah represented the only Islamic group that was able to eradicate Israeli forces within their country.

Who speaks for Islam?
One of the books that answers this fundamental question was a book written by John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed (2008). The latter authors believe that in order to asses this question, it is necessary for one to interact with the Muslims themselves and find this out. Consequently, their research in the book involved a collection of fifty thousand interviews conducted among one point three million Muslims who lived in Muslim oriented countries. The book’s major aim was to discover some of the insights about the Islamic world.

Esposito and Mogahed (2008) found that contrary to popular western belief, many of the respondents do not hate American freedom. They however felt that America was hypocritical in their approach to the Muslim world. They asserted that it is the US that came in the way of Muslim’s achievement of prosperity.

The latter research also found that most Muslims are actually not interested in war or conflict against the US or other entities. In fact, large shares of the youth are looking for security, jobs and a better future. This is in sharp contrast to the images that keep bombarding western screens. Most of these images depict young
Muslims being recruited or training for war.

Esposito and Mogahed (2008) also bring out the fact that Muslims want to have their rights protected. Most of them respect and recognize the importance of religion in their daily lives. Consequently, they want their nations to be governed by Islamic law. However, most of them also believe that this does not mean their rights should be left out. Most Muslims claim that religion and freedom can coexist.

It was also surprising to find that almost ninety percent of Muslims are moderates. Consequently, the fear that many westerners had against radical Islam is not based on numbers, instead, it is based on the intensity of their actions. Additionally, most Muslims believe that they can co-exist with westerners if westerners stop misjudging them. They also believe that if their religion was respected and if foreign policies were changed, then there would much more harmony between the two groups.

The latter authors also found that there was some bad news for foreign relations between these groups. They claimed that some radical Muslims still existed and they took up seven percent of the entire Muslim population; these were ninety one million individuals. Such a number can keep rising or be maintained if there is no change in the attitude currently held by westerners; that Muslims are dangerous and that foreign relations needs to be put in line with this.

Conclusion
Islam is a complex religion made up religious extremists, moderates and modern adherents. Unification of this religion occurred as a result of the important political role that religion played in Islamic countries and the peaceful teachings of the scriptures. Islamic militancy grew out of the need to eradicate political oppression by foreign powers such as Israel and the US. Additionally, it was fueled by double standards in western countries and attacks launched against the country.

References

Ayoob, M. (2007): The Many faces of Political Islam: Religion and politics in the Muslim World; Michigan University Press
Burke, J. (2003): Al Qaida: Casting a shadow of terror; IB Tauris
Cesari, J. (2004): When Islam and Democracy Meet: Muslims in Europe and the United States. Palgrave Macmillan
Esposito, J. & Mogahed, D. (2008): Who Speaks for Islam; Gallup Press
Harik, J. (2004): Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism. I.B. Tauris

The author of this article is a holder of Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard University and currently pursing PhD Program. He is also a professional academic writer. ResearchPapers247.Com>