Stop the hate of Islamic fascism
Farish A Noor
Jan 4, 05 12:55pm
The news that the American-based website MuslimWakeUp!.com, has been attacked by a group of anonymous hackers going by the somewhat pretentious and overblown name of ‘The Islamic OxChallenge Brigades’ can only be met with dismay and disappointment by those of us who count ourselves to be in the ranks of the majority of moderate Muslims the world over.
For academics and activists like myself, who have toiled ceaselessly over the past few years to promote the multifarious face of plural Islam and to defend Muslims from the spurious charge of being closet fundamentalists and crypto-fascists against anything and everything western, this has come as a particularly bitter blow.
One can only imagine the glee and satisfaction of the Islamophobes who have, for years, been preaching the litany of doom and gloom about Islam: Now they will be able to mount the high horse once again and loudly proclaim: “See? I told you so – this is what Muslims are like, murderous fanatics all of them.”
If this ‘brigade’ of non-entities ever wanted to give the neo-cons in power in Washington a new year’s present, this was it. There is nothing that Muslim-haters love more than a rabid Muslim fanatic frothing at the mouth spewing death threats to all and sundry.
That these hoodlums hiding behind the sullied cloak of pseudo-religiosity can denounce others as murtad (apostates) is bad enough; to add insult to injury they have gone that extra step by issuing death threats as well.
I will not dwell at length over the legal-theological-ethical technicalities of such practice of takfir (Muslims accusing others of being kafirs or murtad). Suffice to say that much has already been written about it, and scores of learned ulama from Fazlur Rehman to Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi have not only counselled against such acts, but have even categorically stated that such actions are not only haram, but tantamount to placing oneself above God.(1)
Human nature
In his essay ‘Islamic awakening: Between rejection and extremism’ Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi took issue with those extremist sects and groups that engage in takfir against other Muslims.
Contrary to the oppositional approach of the hardliners, al-Qaradawi counselled for wisdom and understanding when judging the behaviour, practice and beliefs of other Muslims.
“(The call to Islam) cannot succeed without wisdom and amicability, and without taking into consideration human nature - man’s obstinacy, resistance to change and argumentativeness. These characteristics necessitate the exercise of kindness and gentleness when attempting to reach man’s heart and mind so that this hardness can be softened. (2)”
In the same essay, he asks: “How could we expel a Muslim from the fold of Islam merely because of his commitment to certain controversial matters that we are not sure are permissible or forbidden, or because of his failure to perform practices that we are not certain are obligatory or recommended? This is why I object to the tendency of some pious people to adopt and cling to hardline opinions, not only in their own personal practice but also in influencing others to do the same.” (3)
The bottom line is that by accusing other Muslims of being munafikin, kafir or ‘nominal’ Muslims, the hardliners have taken unto themselves the final power and authority of judgement which in Islam is reserved only for God.
This, in effect, amounts to a deviation of aqidah and is thus a serious aberration from the Islamic point of view. By abrogating upon themselves the power and authority of God, such Muslim hardliners have also effectively excommunicated themselves from the larger body of the Muslim ummah, as argued by Fazlur Rehman in his work ‘Islam’.
Despicable practice
That takfir is a despicable practice has received consensus across the learned intelligentsia of the Muslim community, and is something that all Muslim scholars - both Sunni and Shia – agree with.
In his last speech before his death, Ayatollah Mahmud Taleqani - one of the spiritual and intellectual founders of the 1979 Iranian revolution - warned of the dangers of religious extremism and the harm that might be done when religious functionaries are given near-total control of the state apparatus.
Citing the example of the politicised clergy in western Europe during the Middle Ages, Ayatollah Taleqani warned his followers about the dangers of allowing religious functionaries to govern alone, unaided and unhindered by other sections of civil society.
He also cautioned the newly emerging nation of the dangers of takfir and intra-Muslim conflict, lest it render the claims and achievements of the revolution hollow in the end:
“We have not yet recognised the goal of Islam. We all talk about the Islamic revolution, (but) ask yourselves, what is the goal of Islam? This group, that group, ‘they curse one another’ (Qur’an, Surah 29: 25). This one contradicts that one, this one calls that one deviationist. But we have not yet recognised what Islam demands, what Islam is.” (4)
Ayatollah Taleqani’s warning remains as relevant today as when it was first uttered in 1979. For it is clear that many of the Islamist movements that have emerged all over the world in the past century have introduced new concepts, innovations and ideas that go against the central tenets of faith, conduct and ethics in Islam.
Quite often, the history of Islam has been distorted and re-represented in ways that suit the political agendas of the movements themselves.
Too easy a tool
But takfir will remain with us as long as there remain a group of Muslims who can only respond to the myriad of socio-cultural, ideological, political and economic crises that faces the Muslim world by reverting back to a simplistic oppositional dialectics which pits ‘us’ against ‘them’, and which seeks ready answers and remedies in an exclusive anti-politics of authenticity and nostalgia.
The contemporary experience of takfir is often predicated upon such a logic of dialectical opposition that requires the presence of a constitutive oppositional Other for the Islamist project to get off the ground.
Simply put, if the radical expression of Islamism requires an external enemy to oppose, one will simply have to be found. And if one is not readily available, then it has to be invented for the sake of the dialectic itself.
This explains the constant witch-hunts and persecution of political opponents, intellectuals, writers and academics at the hands of Islamist movements worldwide today.
But one has to question the Islamic credentials of an Islamic group that can only call itself Islamic as long as it has an un-Islamic other (real or imagined) to frame itself against.
The saddest thing about this situation is the fact that takfir is too easy, too convenient, a tool to be used against those that one disagrees with. Like racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and class prejudice, it is not only close at hand all the time, but also quickly internalised and normalised.
So what should we – the vast and overwhelming majority of decent Muslims who want to live in peach and harmony with ourselves and the rest of humanity – do about this?
No tolerance for intolerance
Let us, the growing and increasingly visible fraternity of moderate Muslims, lay our cards on the table and be honest with ourselves.
We must – as it is our ethical duty to do so – condemn the rising tide of militarism worldwide, the brutal abuses of human rights, the economic exploitation of the poor, the growing power differentials between the developed and developing worlds.
However, we must also turn this critical energy to ourselves and our community as well. Not all is well in the house of Islam. Indeed, something stinks, and it is called Islamo-fascism.
I write this as a political scientist who has studied the phenomenon of political Islam for nearly a decade.
In the course of my travels and research, I have come across some of the most astounding, redemptive and uplifting examples of religio-politics, which underscores my faith in political Islam as a counter-hegemonic and anti-systemic discourse that can serve as a safeguard against the predatory forces of economic globalisation.
I am proud to say that I have met, worked with and studied under some of the most forward-looking and progressive Muslim intellectuals in the world, including men like Ebrahim Moosa, Khalid Masud, Abdullahi an-Naim, Chandra Muzaffar, Nurcholish Madjid, Ali Asghar Engineer, Farid Esack, Ulil-Abshar Abdallah, Hashim Kamali, Syed Hussein Alatas and others.
I am proud to state that I remain an Islamist-democrat myself and that I have worked with Islamist activists in Malaysia and Indonesia who have been, and remain to be, at the forefront of the struggle for human rights, democracy and justice for all human beings.
Theirs is an understanding of Islam that is plural, inclusive and universal, and one that recognises the complexities of human life and the diversity within the human race.
But in the course of this long sojourn in the ever-shifting terrain of Islamist political praxis, I have also come across a wide spectrum of losers, cop-outs, desperados and hapless ne’er-do-wells, ranging from closet homophobes, latent racists, self-denying bigots and downright fascists.
They masquerade behind the mask of a presumed religiosity that, in the opinion of this writer, they are not entitled to.
Cannot be a racist
How, pray tell, can some of these so-called ‘defenders of Islam’ pose as defenders of a marginalised and persecuted community when they themselves are more than happy, able and willing to mouth some of the most obscene and outrageous insults against others who happen to be different from themselves, be they gender minorities or other ethnic/religious communities?
It is no use trying to sell the plight of the Palestinians, Chechens or Bosnians if and when your speeches are laced with racist and bigoted comments towards Jews, Hindus, Christians, gays and lesbians, Europeans or others.
One cannot fight against racism if one is a racist himself, it is as simple as that.
For progressive Islam to get off the ground, it needs to prioritise and foreground its concerns in the most inclusive, tolerant and universal manner; seeking out strategic and meaningful alliances with all groups and communities that are likewise fighting for the same goals of social justice and the uplifting of humanity as a whole.
In the course of my own struggle as an academic and activist, my allies have been not only fellow Islamists, but also secular European democrats, conscientious Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists – and not to forget atheists – as well as gender minorities such as gays and lesbians who are all suffering under the same structures of domination, prejudice and routinised state and social discrimination.
On the other hand, I have never found any of the hot-headed Muslim bigots among us to be genuine defenders and promoters of democracy, human rights or human dignity in any real sense of the word.
I find it hard, if not impossible, to take seriously those so-called ‘Islamic groups’ that claim to defend the rights of Palestinians when their own websites are festooned with articles and postings taken from neo-Nazi and fascists websites, dripping with bile and venom.
These morons and xenophobes are not our allies and they never will be. Nor should we ever defend them.
That moderate Muslims will bear the brunt of these attacks is not surprising; and I for one feel certain that they are bound to increase in the days ahead. (I myself have been the victim of death threats and smear campaigns, so I speak from personal experience here.)
The tumult of the world, unleashed by the neo-cons’ immoral quest for power masked by the so-called ‘war on terror’ has taken us to this sorry state where cultures and civilisations stand on the edge of a precipice.
But now is also the moment for the multifarious voice of moderate Muslims to ring out true and loud.
Defend right of others
I suspect that those who hate MuslimWakeUp! so are upset because it is one of the few websites in the world today that features a broad spectrum of Muslim voices - not always consonant and in harmony with each other – and gives each one its time and due.
Faced with the chaos of the times we live in, the reality of a plural, hybrid collective Muslim identity is perhaps too rich a diet for those with weaker stomachs, used to a more staid and monotonous cuisine.
But it is precisely the richness of the Muslim world that is being reflected on its pages, and I for one am thankful for that. We need not agree with everything that the other says (and indeed constant and unquestioning agreement on all issues would not only be boring, but also worrying), but we have to defend the right of the other to say it, for us to enjoy the same rights ourselves.
Thus far the Islamo-fascists among us have shown that they are prepared to kill in order the silence the voice of the subaltern ‘other’, be it within or without the Muslim community.
Are we, the humdrum ranks of this inert legion of moderates, prepared to die in turn? Are we prepared to give up our time, energy or even our lives for the cause of democracy, freedom, human rights, tolerance and pluralism?
When that moment comes, I pray to almighty God that he will strengthen my hand and quicken my resolve to stand my ground. I am proud that MuslimWakeUp! is still walking the walk and talking the talk, and hope that it shall continue to do so in the future.
Like the other website I write for – malaysiakini.com, which is the only independent news portal in an increasingly intolerant and authoritarian Malaysia – MuslimWakeUp! is here to remind us that we are all, despite our differences, in the same boat and fighting for the long run. Long may it last and may God give it the strength to persevere.
Endnotes
1) See Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi's ‘Islamic Awakening: Between Rejection and Extremism’, in Charles Kurzman (ed), Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998 and Fazlur Rehman, Islam, 2nd edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979.
Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi’s tract denouncing the practice of takfir was directed towards radical Islamist groups such as the Takfir wa’l-Hijrah and Tanzim al-Jihad, that broke off from the Ikhwan 'ul Muslimin which they regarded as being ‘too soft’ on the question of violent resistance against the state. Qaradawi argued that the excessive religiosity shown by these groups were contrary to the spirit and praxis of Islam, and that by denouncing other Muslims as kafir and munafik they were instead sowing the seeds of fitnah and minha within the ummah.
The reaction of these groups was to condemn Sheikh Qaradawi and the Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar, Sheikh Abd al-Halim Mahmud, as ‘paid government servants’ who were ‘possessed by the Devil’. Fazlur Rehman’s condemnation of takfir was more to the point: he argued that any Muslim who judged him/herself fit to denounce others was in fact placing himself above and thereby outside the Muslim community as a whole, and by doing so was in fact breaking away from the Muslim ummah.
2) Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, ‘Islamic Awakening: Between Rejection and Extremism’, in Charles Kurzman (ed), Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, pg 201.
3) Ibid, pg 200.
4) Ayatollah Mahmud Taleqani’s last sermon (1979). 'From Majmu’eh-e goftar-e Pedar Taleqani', Tehran: Mujahedin-e Khalq-e Iran, 1979.
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