terrorism springs from a fundamental problem in islam: the missing the distinction between religion and politics

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Kaiwan Bahroz in Exclusive

Photo: UKS

Kaiwan Bahroz — Special to Ekurd.net

Islamists believe that the same laws that applied at the time of Muhammad, apply today. They want sharia, Islamic law, shall govern human life. Sharia has its origins in the Qur’an.

Qur’an is itself the revelation. Therefore, it is apparently no room for change. The laws are given once and for all. They can be interpreted, but not changed. There are various schools of law and movements within Islam. But between the leading directions there is great consensus on issues stoning of adulteresses, the death penalty for homosexuality, criminal, family law and women.

Ruler and religious leader

Islamism is politics disguised as faith; it is a political ideology. Islamist terrorists use violence and murder in their fight. It is important to remember that few Islamists are terrorists. It is also important to remember that being a Muslim is not the same as being Islamist. Many Muslims, both devout and people with a more relaxed attitude to their religion, want a society governed by democratic principles.

But the Muslim world is facing major problems. There is no tradition of free democratic institutions, detached from religion. Its founder, the Prophet Muhammad, was ruler and warlord. He founded an empire, organized society, created and issued tax laws – and was a religious leader. All at once.

In Christianity it is a completely different distinction between what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God, between religious power and worldly power. Prophet Muhammad followers inherited a ready-governance. When the political leader is holy, when himself legislator neither can be criticized or tulles with, it becomes difficult to be in opposition.

Improvement for women

There are religious laws that apply when the Islamists govern, as we see today in Iran. In Egypt we saw how it went when the Muslim Brotherhood came to power. After they won the election, they were unable to let go of their rigid opinions. They failed to create compromises that could gather the Egyptians. In Turkey, the ruling Islamist party trying to gag the freedom of speech and democracy. It is simply difficult to discuss with people who think that they own an eternal God-given truth.

Islamists want 1400 years back, to the time the Prophet Muhammad lived. It was a barbaric time far out there in the desert on the Arabian Peninsula. There they obviously have forgotten, is that many of Muhammad’s bid pointed in a completely different direction than the society Islamists want.

Sharia law provides for such women half inheritance in relation to men. A woman’s testimony counts only a quarter of the man, it must therefore more than four women to count heavier than a male witness in court.

But at the time these rules were given, they were a huge step forward for women in this society. Women did not inherit, they were not heard as witnesses. What today is oppressive and unreasonable, involved an improvement of the contemporary situation of women.

Reads everything literally

It is important to remember that all the great religions have seemed civilizing of his time. Christianity stated that every human being is of equal worth, and that the last shall be first. This has revolutionized the relationship between rulers and subjects, it gave the world a new humanity.

Judaism gave us the Ten Commandments. Judaism cultivates doubt and discussion, and is perhaps the most knowledge-seeking religion. Also this religion created in his time a system, an order that made it possible to maneuver in a troubled world.

Hardly any Christians or Jews believe that laws and rules issued for several thousand years ago, to be understood in the same way today. Islamists, however, do not see their religious writings and commandments in a historical context, they interpret not the message into its own time. No, they read everything literally.

It’s strange, really. Islam was long a tolerant religion, from the future standard. It was the Muslims to the Ottoman Empire, the Jews left when the Catholics threw them out of Spain in 1492. True enough to Jews and Christians who were living in the Ottoman Empire to pay extra tax, and they had not the same rights as Muslims.

The conflict today is between modernity and tradition. Separating runs through the Muslim populations everywhere in the world. It runs between those who believe that the laws given by God and those who believe that people must adopt their own laws.