- Monday, 01 December 2014 00:00 (The Guardian Newspaper)
- Written by Disu Kamor
-
- Category: Opinion
- Written by Disu Kamo
DR. PATRICK Dele Cole wrote a serialised piece in The
Guardian newspaper of November 19, 2014 under the title: "Islam,
radicalism and threat to peace". The relentless shrill and coarse
broad-brush denunciations of Islam that filled the entire article only provided
another proof that Islamophobia is thriving and respected in certain quarters
in Nigeria; that certain individuals are aspiring to become the most visible
and flamboyant figurehead of the Islamophobia industry in Nigeria.
Some people have wondered how a former ambassador could so
express ignorance on the pages of a national daily. Yet, as the former
President Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States once remarked
"the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but
that they know so much that isn't so." (Reagan 1964). Dr. Cole's article
places him squarely in this category.
To a discerning mind, many of the false beliefs published in
the article are easily dismantled. For instance, he states that Islam
"condemns to death any Moslem marrying outside the religion." This
unsubstantiated claim, like other outrageous ones in the article, flies in the
face of reason. In fact it would have been laughable were it not for its
potentially serious consequences. Let us examine what the Quran, the highest
source of religious instruction in Islam, categorically states in respect to
inter-faith marriage in Islam. "... The food (slaughtered cattle, eatable
animals) of the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) is lawful to you
and yours is lawful to them. (Lawful to you in marriage) are chaste women from
the believers and chaste women from those who were given the Scripture (Jews
and Christians) before your time when you have given their due Mahr
(bridal-money given by the husband to his wife at the time of marriage), desiring
chastity (i.e. taking them in legal wedlock) not committing illegal sexual
intercourse, nor taking them as girlfriends... "[al-Maa'idah 5:5].
So, where did Dr. Cole get the false belief that Muslims who
marry outside the faith are hunted down and killed?
While it is true that Muslim women are forbidden from
marrying outside the faith, multiple examples of Muslim women that have flouted
this Quranic rule abound around us. In the opening sentence of the article, Dr.
Cole states that "Islamic world view today is a destabilizing factor in
world politics - which view has no place for non-Moslems - except to die by the
sword - Kafirs - fit only for slaughter". Again, one would wonder what
planet Dr. Cole must have lived on to come to this type of bizarre understanding.
Besides, the notion that only 1/5th of world's population, the Muslim
population, can be divinely instructed to be killing everyone they come across
is simply absurd.
If Islam is truly hate-filled and calls to vigilante
terrorism as the likes of Dr. Cole would like us believe, then why was there
never a Jewish Holocaust in a Muslim country in the last 1400+ years? If indeed
the Islamic worldview has no place for non-Muslims, why do the Iranian Jews (of
whom there are thousands) refuse to leave Iran and go to Israel? Why is it that
in Muslim-majority Syria, the government actually grants land to Christians for
the building of churches, along with free water and electricity and the Syrian
Christians have their own personal status legal code, straight from the
Vatican.
Why is it that in Palestine, the birthplace of Jesus Christ
(AS), there still exists today a Christian community which traces its history
back to Jesus Christ - unbroken? If indeed, the Islamic world view calls to
blood-letting of those who don't subscribe to its tenets, why is it that under
the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal, some 30 per cent of
this Muslim dynasty's nobility from which the state soldiers were drawn were
not Muslim, a proportion that had risen to 50 per cent in the reign of his son
Aurangzeb (1658-1707). If Islam was perpetual jihadism, why would so many
non-Muslims join in - and be allowed to join in? If Muslims were savages bent
on perpetual terror, by what moronic logic would they arm the enemies they have
been commanded to wipe out, teach them to fight and incorporate them into their
armies?
The Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula lasted for about
800 years and ushered in golden era of power, progress and inter-faith
tolerance. After Seville fell to Ferdinand III of Castile (1199-1252) in
December 1248, the poet Ar-Rundi said "everything declines after reaching
perfection ... ". The full tale of the horror and sufferings endured by
the Moriscos at the hands of their Christian conquerors has never fully been
told. When the Ottoman Empire finally collapsed at the end of World War I, its
capital, then called Constantinople, was over 50 per cent non-Muslim. The
Ottomans left behind magnificent public, private structures and great memories
in almost all the places where they had ruled.
In contrast to Dr. Cole's view of the world, Prophet
Muhammad (AS) exemplified the authentic worldview that Islam preaches. In 628
C.E., he personally dictated a treaty (also called 'Charter of Privileges') to
the monks of St. Catherine Monastery in Mt. Sina. In it, the Prophet declared:
"This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a
covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.
Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because
Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that
displeases them. No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be
removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries
No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage
it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses. Should anyone take any
of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they
are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate... "
('Muslim History: 570 - 1950 C.E.' by Dr. A. Zahoor and Dr. Z. Haq, ZMD
Corporation).
Shortly afterwards, at the conquest of Jerusalem by the 2nd
successor to the Prophet, Umar Ibn Al-Khattab rode to Jerusalem upon the
request of the Church leaders. Upon entry into Jerusalem, Umar dictated a
treaty with the Christian citizens of Jerusalem, which partly states:
"This is the assurance of safety which the servant of
God, Umar, the Commander of the Faithful, has given to the people of Jerusalem.
He has given them an assurance of safety for themselves for their property,
their churches, their crosses, the sick and healthy of the city and for all the
rituals, which belong to their religion. Their churches will not be inhabited
by Muslims and will not be destroyed. Neither they, nor the land on which they
stand, nor their cross, nor their property will be damaged. They will not be
forcibly converted." (The Great Arab Conquests, from Tarikh Tabari)
At the time, these were by far the most progressive treaties
in history. For comparison, just 23 years earlier when Jerusalem was conquered
by the Persians from the Byzantines, a general massacre was ordered. Another
massacre ensued when Jerusalem was conquered by the Crusaders from the Muslims
in 1099. The treaty that Umar (RA) made with the Christians of Jerusalem became
the standard for Muslim-Christian relations throughout the former Byzantine
Empire, with rights of conquered people being protected in all situations, and
forced conversions never being a sanctioned act.
What will it take to explain to the likes of Dr. Cole that
his mythical Islam is not what the vast majority of the Muslim practise? Also,
how come he knows the crimes of the Muslims and the existential threat that
Islam represents, while he knows nothing of his own and that of the religion he
practises? As a Christian in this country, it may be comforting for him to
believe that he commands such moral heights when he declares that "all
conflicts in the world except Ukraine is Muslim based", yet, he chose to
neglect the fact of the millions of massacred civilians stretching from Wounded
Knee to Dresden, Hamburg, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Hanoi, Panama City, and
more recently throughout the rubble strewn streets of Baghdad, Falluja, Ramadi,
and occupied Palestinian territories. All these places bear silent witness to
the unspeakable horror that people have experienced at the hands of other human
beings. Most victims of these horrific crimes against humanity are Muslims. Of
all the world conflicts that Dr. Cole claims are "Muslim based", he
should tell us a single Muslim country that is pouring weapons of mass
destruction into these volatile regions and conflict zones as does the
so-called Judeo-Christian nations. Almost the entire actors in the different
conflicts around the world have been schooled well in modern warfare never
taught in Islam - the dramatic explosions, the fireballs, the targeted killing,
and the suicide bombers are all straight out of Hollywood.
Dr. Cole, by his own hands, has shown that he is a direct
reincarnation of the Encyclopaedists in the eighteenth century who did not know
and did not care to know what the Muslim believed, nor seek to know the views
of Eastern Christians with regard to the Islamic faith. He attributes all the
conflicts in the world to Islam and Muslims but forget that in July 2011,
Anders Behring Breivik was arrested and charged with terrorism after a car
bombing in Oslo and a mass shooting on Utøya island that killed 77 people.
Hours prior to the events, Breivik had released a 1,500-page manifesto
detailing his beliefs that immigrants were undermining Norway's traditional
Christian values.
The National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), a rebel
group that seeks the secession of Tripura, North-East India, from the country,
has been described as Christian terrorists engaging in terrorist violence
motivated by their Christian beliefs. The NLFT includes in its aims the forced
conversion of all tribes, people in Tripura to Christianity. The Lord's
Resistance Army (LRA), a cult and guerrilla army, is currently engaged in an armed
rebellion against the Ugandan government. Since 2005 when the rebellion
started, the LRA has been accused of using child soldiers and of committing
numerous crimes against humanity; including massacres, abductions, mutilation,
torture, rape, and using forced child labourers as soldiers, porters, and sex
slaves. LRA, pretty much like Boko Haram, is a quasi-religious movement that
mixes some aspects of Christian beliefs with its own brand of spiritualism. Its
leader, Joseph Kony, proclaims himself the spokesperson of God and a spirit
medium. Eric Robert Rudolph who carried out the Centennial Olympic Park bombing
in 1996, as well as subsequent attacks on an abortion clinic is, according to
Michael Barkun, a professor at Syracuse University, a Christian terrorist.
James A. Aho, a professor at Idaho State University also argues that religious
considerations inspired Rudolph.
These are all examples of crimes perpetrated in the name of
Christ but no one calls on the Christians to apologise for them. I know it will
be difficult to persuade people who make agreement with them a precondition of
even having a conversation to change their views. My wish is that the type of
"motivated reasoning" that permeates Dr. Cole's article - pursuing
information that confirms what we already think and discarding the rest - will
help others see how dangerous it is to selectively read history.
Finally, Dr. Cole states his frustration with the Nigerian
Muslims - that we are not sufficiently angry with Boko Haram. "They have
to do something beyond pious declarations in newspapers." This public
lynching of Muslims and the demonization that paves the way for it simply have
to stop. If a situation where simply thinking about condemning Boko Haram can
get one shot in the head (and countless Muslim/Muslim leaders have died this
way) is not courageous enough, then I simply don't know what else Dr. Cole expects
from us. But the Muslim community has bent over backwards and done far more
than this. Literally, many Muslims have acted as human shield against the
terrorists. In a country that cannot guarantee personal security for anyone,
majority of those caught in the line of fire are Muslims, their lives have been
disrupted, some irretrievably. Other Muslims, like their counterpart citizens,
make daily sacrifices providing critical services in hospitals, saving lives,
donating blood, providing for the orphans of the victims of terrorism or, as
members of the armed forces, dying gallantly in battles - as unsung heroes.
These are some of the important contributions that Muslims are making to
advance national security and defeat terrorism. But of course, Dr. Cole is
having none of it.
Disu Kamor is Executive Chairman, Muslim Public Affairs
Centre, MPAC, Nigeria.
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