MUSLIMS throughout the world have been shocked and horrified at the atrocities of Sept. 11. The use of unsuspecting passengers as missiles to kill and injure innocent people and to destroy property is a heinous crime that could not have been contemplated and carried out by individuals with a grain of humanity and religious faith. No one has claimed responsibility for this terrible deed but the finger of suspicion is pointed at a group of so-called Muslim fundamentalists. Neither the law of Islam nor its ethical system justify such a crime. No sooner had the extent of the damage and the vast number of victims becomes known than voices were heard asserting that the atrocity is a manifestation of the inherent antipathy between Islam and the West. This is naive in the extreme.
Islam and Christianity (the main element of Western culture) spring from the same Abrahamic roots, and both adopted the Hellenistic heritage. Their ethical principles are not in conflict. Past and even present conflicts between them originate in territorial ambitions or over the acquisition of resources. The specter of “The Clash of Cultures” as predicted by Samuel Huntington should be treated like the work of a fortuneteller. His thesis is no more than Armageddon dressed up as social science. There is a widespread belief in the West that Islam fosters violence. This is utterly untrue.
In his farewell sermon Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), addressing the thousands of pilgrims at the foot of the Mount of Mercy, said: “God has made inviolable for you each other’s blood and each other’s property until you meet your Lord.”
This was an elaboration of the Qur’anic decree that to destroy the one individual amounts to destroying the entire human race. (Surah 5, verse 32) The Qur’an emphasizes that those who declare war on God and disturb the peace of society and cause corruption and disorder deserve the severest punishment that can be imposed. (Surah 5, verse 33)
No society is free of violence of one type or another. The most vicious type is that which describes itself as religious. The invocation of religion often aims at giving respectability to despicable objectives. There may be a good reason to employ violence to eradicate the perpetrators of atrocities, but it is prudent to look deeper into the prevalence of depravity to discover the source of its seed and the environment that gives it nourishment. It is erroneous to fix our gaze on so-called religious fanaticism. True, we cannot dismiss its effect totally, but it is often a minor element in the multiplicity of economic, political and social factors.
No Muslim should give succor or protection to criminals. The Prophet decreed that the miscreant should not be granted refuge by anyone. The Prophet’s decree was aimed at eradicating the tribal custom that accorded its errant members full protection as a matter of honor and as an expression of solidarity. The rule of law, Islam insists, takes precedence over and above tribal loyalty.
Central to the message of the Prophet is the equality of the human race. The Muslim creed that there is no god but Allah is reflected in its social perception that there is no tribalism but universal unity of humankind.
Tribalism limits the individual’s vision to the confines of the tribe. The outsider is seen as foreign even as an outlaw. The tribal conflicts of pre-Islamic Arabia were a manifestation of this primitive outlook, which burdens the tribe with the crime of any of its members. Collective criminalization as well as collective punishment is the norm under tribal rules. Islam puts the responsibility of illegal acts on the miscreant alone, abolishing the tribalistic code.
The Qur’an declares that no bearer of burdens can bear the burdens of another. (Al-Naja 53 v.3 8) This was the final nail in the coffin of tribalism. Allah made humankind into peoples and tribes so that they may know one another. He then decrees that a person’s honor in the eyes of our Sustainer is not based on genealogy but on conduct. “The noblest of you in the sight of Allah is he who is most righteous.” (Surah 49 v. 13)
The tribe is a reality. Tribalism is a disease that had to be cured. The world at present appears to be sinking into tribalism with its savagery of collective and unthinking solidarity leading to a collective and indiscriminate punishment. Examples of this deterioration abound in our today’s world. The innocent is callously sacrificed for the presumed sin of the supposed guilty. How far has our world traveled away from its spiritual and religious roots! How deeply has present-day society succumbed to the enticement of hedonism and materialism! And how far has individualism triumphed over social responsibility. Is it any wonder that most nations, especially the advanced ones, have lost direction and with it the internal peace of the individual and social peace within the community. This is the breeding ground of violence and terrorism. We desperately need for the recovery of the religious commitment that will inspire in all of us the respect for the rule of law over individualism and tribalism. Only then will we subscribe to the dignity and worth of all peoples, tribes, and individuals regardless of color, custom, tongue and traditions. And only then will we have a world at peace with itself.
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Dr. Zaki Badawi is principal of the Muslim College in London.
