Islam & Europe: Crises are Challenges

Acknowledgments

73 acknowledgments Bettina Leysen Dear Abdullahi An-Nàim, I must confess that when Prof. Marie-Claire Foblets revealed to me that she had succeeded to have you nominated for the honorary doctor title at the catholic university of Leuven, I had never heard of you before. She told me that your thesis was that the sharia has to be adapted on a voluntary basis by Muslims. Having inherited my father’s pragmatic attitude, my spontaneous reaction was: this sounds very interesting, but are his ideas practical and applicable? Marie-Claire Foblets confirmed the latter and as a proof she gave me her copy of your latest book, Islam and the secular state, together with your article ‘From Muslims in Europe to European Muslims’. I quote from the article: “As Kurt Lewin rightly said, ‘there is nothing so practical as a good theory.’ This does not only mean that practice should be guided by good theory, but also that good theory should be practical.” End of quote. Her idea of organising a conference in your honour, could therefore count on my family’s enthusiasm. Last month, during a visit to Senegal, I found the time to read your latest book: Islam and the Secular State, Negotiating the Future of Shari’a. You argue that the coercive enforcement of Sharia by the state betrays the Qur’an’s insistence on voluntary acceptance of Islam. As it happens, Senegal has a secular constitution since its independence. The Muslim religious brotherhood of the Mourides could not accept the secular character of the newly founded state, and therefore created their own state within the Senegalese state. In the holy city of Touba every aspect of life, such as education, health care and land tenure, is managed by the religious Mouride order independently of the Senegalese state. In the entire country, the Mourides are venerated as saints; one finds depicturesofthisdynastyineverycarrapideandonmanymobilephones. The Islam I have come to know during the last years in Senegal first struck me as being totally different from the Qur’anic Islam I have been taught at this very university, by Prof. Emilio Platti. When I confronted Amina Wadud, another distinguished speaker of this Forum, about what I would describe as popular Islam, she replied: “Remember Bettina, this is the only alternative to Wahhabism.” As you all know, Wahhabism is 74 Bettina Leysen the kind of Islam practiced in Saudi-Arabia. What you might not know, is that it is also the legal school under the jurisprudence of which some Belgian Muslims fall. During the month of the Ramadan, Imams of Wahhabite signature are invited with Saudi support to promulgate their fundamentalistic and puritan interpretation of Islam. In contrast to Amina Wadud, I believe that there is a third alternative to Wahhabism on the one side and popular, devotional Islam, on the other side. I am thinking of Sufism, or more broadly mysticism. Mysticism is the language in which all religions understand each other, as the mystic experience is pre-verbal and pre-conceptional. In Zen the phrase goes: “The greater the mystic experience, the greater the compassion with all sentient beings.” Contrary to common prejudice, the mystic way leads into everyday life. I give the example of he great Flemish mystic Hadewijch, who lived in the 13th century in Brabant. One of her followers was indulging in languorous longing for the Lord. Her brief advise was: “Stop it and start working.” However, the mystic way is long and often painful, as described for example by Saint John of The Cross in his famous work ‘Dark Night of the Soul’. Mystics of all religious beliefs have been persecuted and sometimes executed by their religious authorities, to mention only the great Muslim mystic Mansur al-Hallaj and Margarete Porete, who lived at the turn of the 14th century in our latitudes. Dear Abdullahi An-Nàim, I don’t know if you are a mystic, and I wouldn’t dare to ask. What I know however is that you are striving incessantly to make our society more humane by demanding human rights for every individual, whatever his religion, ethnicity or legal status. (Professor An-Nàim was so kind to tell me later that indeed he is a Sufi). I am looking forward to your lecture, but first I would like to thank Marie-Claire Foblets for her dedication and expertise in composing the Anne and André Leysen Forum in the past three years. Our gratitude goes also to Isabel Penne, who brought...