Islamic Perspectives on the New Millennium

1. Islamic Perpectives on the New Millennium

1 ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVES ON THE NEW MILLENNIUM Virginia Hooker The suicide bombings in the United States of America on 11 September 2001, executed by terrorists claiming they acted in the name of Islam, set in train events whose repercussions will influence world politics for the foreseeable future. Although the perpetrators were denounced by Muslim leaders around the world as criminals whose acts were not condoned by Islam, many nonMuslims nevertheless believed that somehow Islam was to blame for the September 11 tragedy. The Islamic terrorist group known as Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the bombings and was targeted by Western leaders for retribution, but care was taken to emphasize that the punitive action would be directed against Al-Qaeda and its allies, not against Islam and Muslims in general. However, when the United States and its allies bombed Taliban forces in Afghanistan (2001) and then proceeded against Saddam Hussein without the sanction of the United Nations Security Council (2003), increasing numbers of ordinary Muslims became suspicious about the motives of the administration of President George W. Bush. Heightened surveillance of Muslims in many Western countries, more stringent immigration controls, tight security in public venues and centres of mass travel, and alarmist reports in many media outlets produced a sense of fear among ordinary people, both Muslims and non-Muslims. The early years of the twenty-first century have therefore been characterized by widespread anxiety and fear of violence, state intrusion into personal lives (in the name of public safety) and perceived 1 Virginia Hooker 2 discrimination against individuals on the basis of their place of origin or religion. The climate of fear which has grown and been fostered by the media, wherever it operates, is in sad contrast to the efforts of many intellectuals in the last decade of the twentieth century to find common ground between people of all faiths based on the universality of mankind. Possibly provoked by Samuel P. Huntington’s controversial claim that “universal civilization” was the product of Western thought, there have been many responses from Muslim intellectuals who argued that it was Islamic civilization which became the first truly universal civilization. These intellectuals also promoted the concept of civilizational dialogue, recognizing that there are many religions and cultures and seeking a system of global ethics based on shared spiritual, moral, and ethical values. This book, an analysis of Muslim attitudes to key areas of modern life, is a contribution to continuing the effort which Muslim intellectuals have already started, in making Muslim views on contemporary issues available to a wider audience. Although not all the authors are Muslims, each has written from a Muslim perspective and addressed their particular topic so as to give a sense of the internal Muslim points of view. The aim is to provide nonMuslims with a sense of the main debates within Islam on six important issues. As each chapter shows, there is no single “Muslim” position on issues such as Islamic banking, human rights, the public role of women, globalization, or the relationship between Islam and the state. The reader will discover the plurality of views Muslims hold on these topics, ranging from those based on literalist interpretations of the Qur’an to views which argue that contextual interpretations are the most appropriate for Muslims living in the twenty-first century. For many Muslims, the challenge of modernity rests on the question of how to be up-to-date with technological, medical, and financial advances and still remain true to the basic principles of Islam. Equally, many Muslims do not wish to see their religion being accused of holding back women or applying inhumane punishments under religious laws, and so they work within their own societies to persuade their fellow Muslims that the Qur’an supports full development of the potential of all human beings and that compassion and mercy are the principles underpinning Islamic law. The critical question, as Associate Professor Ahmad Shboul emphasizes in his chapter on Islam and globalization, is the need to define our questions appropriately: which Islam, in which place, when, and for whom? This book has been planned to respond to the diversity of thinking across the Muslim world by bringing together views from the Middle East, South Asia, and 3 Islamic Perspectives on the New Millennium Indonesia, the state which now has the largest Muslim population in the world. This wide-ranging comparison of Muslim views on major issues...