The first step, Holland suggests, is for everyone to stop playing this “nothing to do with Islam” game.
Thegrim truth is that sanctions can be found in the Qur’an, in thebiographies of Muhammad and in the histories of early Islam for muchthat strikes the outside world as most horrific about the Islamic state.recently from Syria, “our deen [religion/ law] is clear we will killtheir men, take their women and children as slaves insha Allah.” Thatthis reading of assorted qur’anic verses and episodes from the life ofthe Prophet is the most brutal one imaginable does not necessarilyinvalidate it. To be sure, there are other, richer, more nuancedinterpretations possible – and yes, the bone-headed literalism of thosewho would interpret the Qur’an as a license to maim, enslave and killrepresents a challenge to everyone who prizes it as a revelation fromGod, supremely compassionate and supremely wise. That is no reason,though, to play the jihadis’ own takfiri game, and deny them a status asMuslims. The very appeal of their sanguinary interpretation of Islamicscripture is far too lethal to permit such a tactic. It is not enough toengage with the jihadis solely on the battlefield. They must bedefeated as well in mosques, and libraries, and seminar rooms. This is abattle that, in the long run, can only be won by theologians. – Seemore at:
http://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/com...alisation-by-tom-holland#sthash.eH7mynK3.dpuf
The grim truth is that sanctions can be found in the Qur’an, in the biographies of Muhammad and in the histories of early Islam for much that strikes the outside world as most horrific about the Islamic state. “Kuffar are afraid we will slaughter yazidis,” a British jihadi tweeted recently from Syria, “our deen [religion/ law] is clear we will kill their men, take their women and children as slaves insha Allah.” That this reading of assorted qur’anic verses and episodes from the life of the Prophet is the most brutal one imaginable does not necessarily invalidate it. To be sure, there are other, richer, more nuanced interpretations possible – and yes, the bone-headed literalism of those who would interpret the Qur’an as a license to maim, enslave and kill represents a challenge to everyone who prizes it as a revelation from God, supremely compassionate and supremely wise. That is no reason, though, to play the jihadis’ own takfiri game, and deny them a status as Muslims. The very appeal of their sanguinary interpretation of Islamic scripture is far too lethal to permit such a tactic. It is not enough to engage with the jihadis solely on the battlefield. They must be defeated as well in mosques, and libraries, and seminar rooms. This is a battle that, in the long run, can only be won by theologians.
How best to establish, for instance, that the actions of jihadis in beheading their foes are indeed contrary to Islam? Fighters for the Islamic State might well point out that the Qur’an describes angels decapitating unbelievers with the aim of spreading terror; that the first Muslims are described as harvesting heads on the battlefield of Badr; that Muhammad himself is said to have owned a sword that can be translated as ‘Cleaver of Vertebrae’. It is not enough, within such a context, merely to insist that Islam is a religion of peace, and leave it at that. Muslim scholars have an urgent responsibility to demonstrate in the most painstaking detail exactly where and why the jihadis are wrong. Just as Christian intellectuals, in the wake of the Holocaust, were obliged to confront the evil purposes to which the New Testament had been put, and recalibrate their understanding of it on a theological level, so do their Muslim counterparts today need to redeem their own scriptures from the taint of savagery that is doing so much to blacken the image of their religion.
Amen, bro.
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