09 July 2005

'I pray for the victims, here and in Iraq'

The Guardian article the title references is well worth reading for the vox pops of ordinary Muslims, giving evidence of the distance between the jihadis and ordinary Muslims.

One of the quotes is really helpful in articulating the theological challenges that Islam is in denial about.
Ehsan Masood: "There's an uncomfortable question that we in the British Muslim community need to face up to - a theological one. Every time a group linked to al-Qaida commits an act of terrorism, it justifies this by whipping out a verse from the Qur'an. This is dishonest use of religion; and at the same time it is a gift to groups like the BNP*. Why? Because they, like al-Qaida, also like to draw out isolated verses of the Qur'an to 'prove' that Muslims can never be trusted to live as true citizens of western countries. So far community organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain have been reluctant to promote a debate on Islamic theology because of a fear that it could harm the fragile consensus on which the MCB operates. This debate needs to happen. I, for my part, will strongly argue that it isn't good enough for Muslims to merely condemn terrorism: we need to clamp down hard on the shoddy theology that people like al-Qaida use to justify what they do."

I think that there are parallels between Islam now and western Christendom just before the Reformation. The growing interest in vernacular scripture, power moving away from clerical elites, a growing awareness of a gap between the teachings of the clergy and the actual content of scripture and between the inhumanity of traditional teachings and the humanity aspired to.
Suggestive...

* For non-Brits: the BNP is the British Nationalist Party, a right-wing neo-fascist group seeking political legitimacy by attempting to represent the interests -or change the consciousness- of 'oppressed white Britons'.
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | 'I pray for the victims, here and in Iraq':

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