Encountering the Stranger: A Jewish-Christian-Muslim Trialogue

2. Whom May I Kill?

24 2 Whom May I Kill? Zayn Kassam When participants in this trialogue spent time together at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington, D.C., they obtained horrific reminders of the human capacity for violence against the other, whose allegedly “essential” characteristics often are depicted as negative and threatening. Even though a collective call for “Never Again” was articulated by Jews as a warning to the world after the Holocaust, violence —including genocide—continues to mar our lives. One of the most chilling aspects of the evidence collected and displayed at USHMM is that ordinary people acted in ways large and small that resulted in extraordinary violence, justifying these actions to themselves in the process. Time spent at USHMM can daze the visitor, but one realization becomes inescapably clear: unless humanity learns to appreciate and value difference, we will continue to justify violence against one another by employing rhetoric that depicts the other as vile and menacing. In particular , religious traditions need to probe how sacred texts contribute to this problem and how they might also help correct it. This chapter examines relevant verses in the Qur’an to discern how Islamic scripture identifies the stranger, the actions that should follow such identification, and the conditions in which those actions may include violence. Beginning with commentary on how the Qur’an views non-Muslims , the chapter specifically proceeds to consider Islamic views regarding Jews and Christians as well as those traditionally known as the hypocrites 25 Whom May I Kill? and the polytheists. Finally, the analysis points in directions that may enable Muslims to rethink religious pluralism while retaining their primary identity as Muslims. The Stranger Strangers are not understood monolithically in the Qur’an; generally, the Qur’an enjoins doing good to them: “Serve Allah, and join not any partners with Him; and do good—to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, those in need, neighbors who are near, neighbors who are strangers, the companion by your side, the wayfarer (ye meet), and what your right hands possess: For Allah loveth not the arrogant, the vainglorious” (4:36).1 However, it could be argued that Muslims might consider the unbeliever as an outsider or a different kind of “stranger.” The term kāfir, literally meaning “the ungrateful one,” connotes one who is an unbeliever, who does not recognize God’s bounties and hence does not accede to the lordship and creatorship of the one God. Some monotheists may fall into this category if, despite being monotheists, they are ungrateful for the bounties of creation. It may also be extrapolated that all polytheists (mushriqūn)—those who hold the view that different divinities are responsible for the bounties found in creation— are, therefore, unbelievers and hence outsiders. In the Qur’an’s own time, such folk were clearly considered a potential physical threat to Muslims, as can be extrapolated from the Qur’an’s caution to the Muslims of its time that prayer may be shortened while traveling, should there be any fear of being attacked by unbelievers (4:101). Islam takes Abraham to be the quintessential muslim, anyone who has performed the act of islām (surrendering to divine will). While this designation applies to Muslims, it also fits those who are not Muslim by faith but are monotheistic by persuasion, before or after Islam was revealed as a historical religious tradition through the prophecy of Muhammad in the seventh century. The Qur’an relates the story of Abraham’s watching the sun, moon, and stars and determining that he could not worship them because they were not constant and abiding but subject to rising and setting . For Abraham, the only being worthy of worship is not one that rises and sets but one who created those who rise and set (Qur’an 6:76–80). Thus, by implication, the ungrateful one, or kāfir, is identified as one who has not acknowledged the lordship and creatorship of God. The Qur’an further specifies that God is not multiple but single. In 26 Zayn Kassam Qur’an 112, the chapter most often cited as revealing the oneness or unicity of God, it is said that God is One, that God did not beget, nor was God begotten. This outlook may well have been emphasized to contrast with the pre-Islamic Arab belief that Allah had three daughters who were divinities in their own right; the Christian belief...