By Haowen Tan
Summary
The advocates on both sides can rightfully provide arguments with sufficient evidences to claim that the core of Islam is either peaceful or violent.
Ever since the catastrophic destruction of the iconic twin towers of the World Trade Center in September 11, 2001, the entire world ceaselessly debates on the role of violence in Islam. Parallel to the War on Terror launched by the United States, a war in the public was waged with a question circulating among people: Is Islam a religion of peace? Yet, the ongoing religious violence have metastasized over time, perpetuating and extending the threat of Islamic extremism across the world with endless terrorism and fundamentalism. The advocates on both sides can rightfully provide arguments with sufficient evidences to claim that the core of Islam is either peaceful or violent. However, this perspective oversimplifies the issue because Islam is rather unbound to the simple binary concept of peace or violence. Hence, this essay will deconstruct the premise of the rigid binary concept of Islam while explaining how the expression of the religion is dependent on different conditions and interpretations that would find extreme difficulty aligning across the Muslim community.
However, this perspective oversimplifies the issue because Islam is rather unbound to the simple binary concept of peace or violence.
A critical part of this question is to define the terminologies of “peaceful” and “violent”. Although both of them are relative and subject to individual perspectives, there will be given definitions to these terms to avoid over-complicated argumentation. If the religion is violent, it contradicts the most basic universal human rights such as personal freedom and safety. Extremism, for instance, violates these rights through the violence it tends to commit against ordinary people. If the religion is peaceful, it respects the human rights of every individual, regardless if they believe in the religion or not. If Islam matches with either description, the entirety of it must correspond with the definition. That is to say, not just the religious texts must agree with the definition which many proclaim it as the core of the religion, the interpretations and practices by its followers must all fall under the account. Any assessment of Islam that only analyzes the religion partially is not capable of making conclusions for it as a whole.
A critical part of this question is to define the terminologies of “peaceful” and “violent”.
Given the current state of affairs, it is evident that the violent side of Islam is often expressed and amplified due to political instability and state dysfunction. Decades of wars and poverty have occupied many Muslim countries. The weakened governments are not capable of providing adequate social welfare and other public services to their citizens. In countries such as Iraq, over ten million people were under the humanitarian crisis since 2014. In Syria, roughly 82.5% of its entire population was below the poverty line in 2014, a number that indicates total failure of its government. In addition to state dysfunction, global politics consistently interfered in Muslim territories, further complicating the regional instability. For example, the U.S Coalition Provisional Authority disbanded the Iraqi army in 2003, leaving millions of properly trained Iraqi soldiers unemployed. These individuals became unstable factors in society, directly fueling the rise of Islamic State by providing formal military officials. In Afghanistan, the proxy war between the USSR and the U.S in the late 1900s destabilized the entire country. With economic failures and the US’s temporary support for the Islamic fighters known as Mujahideen, it accounted for the rise of Taliban in the following decades.
Decades of wars and poverty have occupied many Muslim countries.
Under this context, religion became a very powerful tool for extremism to thrive. The long-subjugated people under decades of unrest were desperate for outlets of anger. Although extremist organizations could not function as a decent government in terms of providing humanitarian aids, they offered ideological support that encouraged religious violence for the promise of an Islamic Utopia. In this sense, Islam could be manipulated and twisted to serve an unrealistic and violent cause, but the aggrieved people were mentally vulnerable to resist fanatic ideologies that proclaimed to give them hope. In the town of Barawe located in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region, Islamic extremists opened a center for neglected children, offering religious education that encouraged them to join wars for Islam. In this case, the abandoned youths were the perfect targets for extreme ideas because the lack of parental love may allow the extremists to mislead them to fight for a radical cause. Even though the extremists might have completely distorted the religious texts, the fact that they could successfully manipulate Islam in an extreme manner proves that it has a violent potential. Simply denying any connection between violent extremism and Islam is not logical because these people do self-identify as Muslims, and their existence represents an indisputable part of the religion. However, most importantly, how the unstable conditions contributed to violence demonstrates that Islam is heavily dependent on individual influences that varies in different situations. This is particularly crucial to the understanding of why it does not belong to the binary concept which would be emphasized in later paragraphs.
The long-subjugated people under decades of unrest were desperate for outlets of anger.
Counter to the violence expressed through extremist actions cited above, under most circumstances, the practices of Muslims reveal a peaceful nature of the religion. The first thing to note here is that in the recent years, the media often exaggerated the violence committed by Islamic extremists. Overwhelming negative and little to none positive news about Muslims in media portrayed an incomplete and misleading image of the Islamic community as a whole. Dr. Chris Allen at the University of Birmingham writes, “The evidence shows an overwhelmingly negative picture, where threat, otherness, fear, and danger posed or caused by Muslims and Islam underpins a considerable majority of the media’s coverage”. The truth, however, is that most Muslims living in the world today do not uphold violence. In politically stable nations such as Indonesia, where 88% of the population is Muslim, the country shows substantial tolerance towards different religions. Considering that 13% of the world’s Muslims are Indonesians which is an immense population over 200 million, it is an undeniable proof that a group of Muslims can definitely live without massive religious violence and conflicts. In 2014, more than 120 top Muslim leaders and scholars sent an open letter to the Islamic State’s leaders and the followers, condemning the inhuman religious practices which they claimed to be illegitimate. In contrast to the violence depicted in the previous paragraph, the peaceful followers demonstrates the observable non-extreme side, proving that the community do not align to uphold either peace or violence. Instead, the peaceful potential of Islam exhibits that it is a religion dependent on the influences one receives since those who support peace are mostly uninvolved in warfare and poverty which the extremists are constantly suffering from.
Overwhelming negative and little to none positive news about Muslims in media portrayed an incomplete and misleading image of the Islamic community as a whole.
In the previous paragraphs, it has been proven that Islam is practiced and interpreted differently that varies across diverse populations. To deflect the arguments which state that Islamic texts are either fundamentally peaceful or violent which represents the core of the religion, it is essential to note that Islamic teachings, like its followers’ practices, are also not aligned exclusively to either terminology.
At odds to each other, the religious texts in the history of Islam deliver different ideologies that are not all associated with either terms. In the Quran, a book which is considered by the Muslims as “The Word of Allah(God)”, it was said, “ Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth” [Quran 9:29]. In Hadith which is a collection of the sayings of Muhammad – the founding father of Islam, it was recorded that he waged 19 military expeditions against the non-believers, and in the Battle of the Trench, he executed and enslaved all men and women, children and elders of a Jewish tribe. Solely based on these examples, Islam seems to have no tolerance for any other religions. It is fundamentally violent in this case because it tends to force non-believers to convert even if it means bloodshed. The extremist intentions were explicitly expressed.
Solely based on these examples, Islam seems to have no tolerance for any other religions.
However, in the Quran, the same book which ordered that Muslims must fight to convert non-believers, it stated, “Thus, if they let you be, and do not make war on you, and offer you peace, God does not allow you to harm them” [Quran 4: 90]. Furthermore, this book stated, “There must be no coercion in matters of faith!” [Quran 2: 256]. It was also ordered that Muslims may not begin hostilities [Quran 2: 190]. Unexpectedly, these quotes in Islam express inherently opposite views compared to the previous quotes. They convey ideas of tolerance on other religions and an attitude against violence. Solely based on these quotes, the core of Islamic teachings would be peaceful, but with the combination of both sets of quotes that are contradicting, Islamic texts could no longer fit the binary concept.
Unexpectedly, these quotes in Islam express inherently opposite views compared to the previous quotes...the combination of both sets of quotes that are contradicting [makes Islam] no longer fit the binary concept.
With both peaceful and violent quotes, it ultimately accounts for different interpretations by the Muslims. The violent texts would appeal to many Muslims living under instability. The suppression these people suffered over years enabled them to appreciate these quotes where they could express their outrage against their conditions. Extremist leaders such as Osama Bin Laden repeatedly mentioned these quotes to lead their followers. To convince Muslims to join him, in Bin Laden’s public letter written to the United States in 2002, he began by citing, “Permission to fight (against disbelievers) is given to those (believers) who are fought against, because they have been wronged and surely, Allah is Able to give them (believers) victory" [Quran 22:39]. For the non-extremist Muslims living under stable political protections and social welfares, they are more likely to believe in peaceful texts where they could find prosperity and peace which they are enjoying. They are likely to have less frustration and hopelessness, meaning that they do not necessarily need an extreme cause to release dissatisfaction. In the open letter by peaceful Muslims previously mentioned, they cited, “And fight in the way of God with those; who fight with you, but aggress not: God loves not the aggressors” [Quran 2:190].
With both peaceful and violent quotes, it ultimately accounts for different interpretations by the Muslims.
In sum, the response to the debate of whether Islam is a religion of peace should never be binary. Complicated and diverse conditions across the global community of Muslims prompt various religious practices and interpretations that can never be represented by one terminology. The principle rationale for asking this question is the impact of the violence. Nevertheless, by simply concluding Islam as a religion of either peace or violence will never resolve the atrocity committed by extremists. The existences of violent and peaceful expressions of Islam are irrefutable facts despite which side wins the argument. Islam should be viewed like every other religion in the world which people usually would not refer to as peaceful or violent because they can belong to either category under different perspectives. In the end of the day, the world needs less dispute and more collaboration between people of different identities. Another terminology to describe Islam that does not represent it as a whole would only create unnecessary controversies. It is much more urgent to resolve the issue of extremism rather than to blame or protect the reputation of the religion. It would generate nothing but more useless debates and disagreements while millions of Muslims still demand the world to make decisive changes for their lives.
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