Militant Islam (Islamicism) in perspective

Submitted by Prof. Whiteley (United States), Feb 25, 2003 at 20:08

To understand this controversy re the approach to a critical (that is not onesided) understanding of Islam, it is interesting to study the attitude of Mahatma Gandhi toward Islam. While Gandhi was a devout Hindu, he was well known as a universalist with repect to the world's religions, which led him to have great respect for Islam as well. That is, a truly devotional, nonmilitant Islam, but what was his view of militant Islam which no one in India could possibly ignore, any more than one could ignore militant Hinduism. Gandhi had no fear of any of these militants, despite the threats on his life which emanated from the ranks of the militants, and indeed G. was asassinated by one of them ultimately. He was, however, oddly inclined toward what we would call, in contemporary terms , "political correctness" with repect to Islam- never wanting to offend the Muslims with criticism of their militant past in India, or even their communalism in 1947.

He understood two main things about Indian Muslims: their minority status made them very nervous about coming independence, and Muslims can be driven easily into religious intolerance, which history shows quite clearly. So we must think of Islam in ideal terms, of the tolerant side to it, which certainly exists, and to the possibility that Muslims will conduct themselves ultimately as our brothers, as we and they recognize our common humanity. He hoped that as the British Raj passes, so too Indian Muslims and Hindus would fuse somehow into one nation. Gandhi always reached out to the best in all humanity, but there is no magical guarantee that this attitude will work wonders, as we know all too well.

The PBS documentary-makers laudably reflect this Gandhian attitude, but they are not charged with the responsibility of holding a political movement together; their responsibility is to take a two-sided approach: that is, to air some of the critical points that Mr. Pipes finds sadly lacking. As such, their work is a propaganda piece that moves American understanding of Islam and American Muslim's understanding of themselves in the wrong direction. It makes America and American Muslims complacent in their understanding of a onesidedly benign Islam, completely ignoring this key point: Without Muslims themselves reaching out for reform of Islam, there can never be the realization of our common humanity in Islam.

We in the West cannot reform Islam, any more than Gandhi could reform it. Muslims must do it themselves; only they can put an end to Islamicism, the militant expression of Islamic intolerance within Islam. We can't do it for them; PBS can produce all the propaganda pieces of political correctness that they have time and our money for, or even produce a crical piece on Islam, which will in my opinion never happen. But only Muslims can start the process of reform with a truthful look at themselves.

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