Monday, October 19, 1998
Critics ignore true causes of hate
ISLAM: Muslims’ faith built on life of truth, not senseless acts
of violence
By Salar Rizvi
The first visions of religion that most people get are confined
to rituals and once-a-week worship. Religion is viewed as something
that is a carbon copy from generation to generation, with most
people blindly following the traditions of their forefathers
without giving it the slightest thought. It has been belittled to a
bubble on a form that must be filled in for mere statistical
purposes.
The unfortunate reality is that a lot of these conceptions have
found their basis in today’s society. For the most part, people
affiliate with a religion for the sake of convenience or simply for
the sake of fitting in.
Religion has become a mechanical part of many people’s lives,
where they simply clock-in and clock-out, forgetting about it as
soon as they leave the congregation. Life and religious worship
have become two distinct spheres that are completely separated.
There was a view presented in an article by Solomon Matsas
(‘Don’t be afraid to challenge, condemn faith, its stereotypes’
Viewpoint, Oct. 8) which exhibits a lack of understanding of the
dynamic between a religion and its followers. He holds the opinion
that since certain members of a faith act upon their own accord
(leaving the tenets of religion behind), all religions should be
censured.
As I have said before, a lot of people identifying with a
religion or belief don’t necessarily have a clue about its
teachings. They act in its name simply by the fact that they are
verbally connected to it.
Circumstance and media misrepresentation have focused such
unfortunate views upon the faith of Islam. I hesitate to call Islam
a religion because it is so much more than that. It is a way of
life, a lens through which to view things around you. In Islam, the
separations of ‘religion’ and business or even ‘religion’ and life
have never and will never exist. It follows, by this reasoning,
that to label someone an Islamic ‘extremist’ or an Islamic
‘fundamentalist’ is a very strong claim and also a completely
invalid one.
Islam, by its nature and teaching, is a religion of moderation
and knowledge, not one of impulse or stupidity. The addition of
‘extremist’ to the word is a misrepresentation, something akin to
calling someone an old-young guy. There is something inherent in
the fact that he is old which precludes him from being young.
Such is the way of Islam.
True belief in Islam means that you act in accordance with its
teachings and ideals  once you step out of its bounds you do
not act on behalf of Islam and Muslims, you act on behalf of
yourself. Since Islam is a complete way of life, all your actions
can be judged in its scale and weighed in its balance.
Islam does not just teach you to be good and worship once a week
 it shows you how to govern yourself in a just manner, what
type of economic principles do not conform to this ideal of
justice, etc. Thus, you can form a state on the tenets of Islam,
which is known as the Islamic state.
It is required that we make a difference between Muslim
countries and an Islamic state. An Islamic state is one in which
the laws of the land conform to the ideals of justice, morality and
altruism and are based on the teachings of Islam. A Muslim country,
however, is only a country with the majority population being
Muslim and is not run by the aforementioned principles.
Islamic ‘fundamentalism’ is another catch phrase that people
seem to like throwing around. If you think about the term, isn’t it
true that we all are fundamentalists? Just indulge me and follow
this argument for a bit.
Isn’t it true that we would all like to get to the fundamentals
of our respective beliefs? We don’t want to follow these
half-truths and ‘new fangled’ ideals; we want to get down to the
core of whatever our belief is  the fundamentals. If you
choose to describe one part of Islam fundamentalists you are
implicitly calling the others a bunch of Islamic
‘introductionists.’ Islam does not allow for people to innovate
ideas and rules based on their own feelings or passions.
Islam has to be based on Islam. We all want to get to pristine
teachings of our faith and belief. The problem occurs when someone
takes it upon themselves to create their own ‘truth’ and establish
their own set of ideas. This is a departure from the fundamentals,
and someone who does this cannot be called a fundamentalist.
Matsas argues that the situation overseas and in the Middle East
calls for a re-evaluation of Islam. What it really calls for is a
re-evaluation of the situation in the Middle East. Has any of us
really thought about what would actually drive someone armed with
only a rock to stand up against a man with a sub-machine gun? It is
not that these people around the world lack the same wants and
desires as we have  it is just that their situation does not
allow for anything else.
Imagine how much oppression and injustice you have to commit
before you get an army of boys ranging from the age of six to over
20 standing against guns with stones. Do we really think that they
have nothing better to do? Do we really think that they wouldn’t
like to be playing around in the streets as any other, normal
child? Is it because these people don’t desire to have a family, a
house and a nice life  or are they a bunch of crazy maniacs
born with the urge to suffer?
We are in no position to criticize a people engulfed in a
situation so foreign to us without a complete understanding of the
origins of that situation. Even then, it borders on the edge of
hypocrisy. It’s easy for us to say that a homeless person should
not be begging and that it lowers our property value, but we don’t
know what we’d be doing in similar circumstances.
We live an extremely comfortable life here, where you can go
down the street and get any item of food your heart desires. What
would you do if someone prevented you from getting any food at all?
What if your basic (by basic I don’t mean cellular phones and
pagers) needs were not being met because some person was standing
in your way? What would you do?
To say that the problem with these people is their faith is to
miss the problem completely. To color Islam with the bombings of
civilians and the actions of some individuals is in itself a great
wrong. Islam defines individuals, individuals do not define Islam.
This is a point that we take little note of. There are many
murders, rapes and immoral acts which occur daily in this country,
but you don’t hear that these are committed by Christians or Jews
or whatever they may be.
When the sanctions on Iraq were upheld by Bill Clinton, we
didn’t hear in the news that ‘Christian President Bill Clinton is
responsible for the deaths of thousands in Iraq.’ Even though he is
a professed Christian, I know that fundamental Christianity would
not support such behavior.
As conscious, thinking adults, we need to redefine ourselves and
what we stand for. If you are comfortable condemning a people or a
faith without knowing the complete history or both sides of the
story, that is your prerogative.
Personally, I consider it hypocritical and consider hypocrisy
abhorrent. We need to judge based on a level playing-field and a
fair criterion. If you have lived most of your life under
oppression and have had the pangs of hunger eat away at your
stomach, then you can step up and try to intellectualize or comment
about the situation. Until then, we have no right to condemn or
speak against someone or their faith without full knowledge of
their situation and their history.
I ask us all, especially myself, to learn about and get to the
heart of what’s happening in the world around us. Let us not assume
that we have all the requisite knowledge to make a just
pronouncement one way or the other, because there will always be
something we don’t know or were not aware of.
Rizvi is a third-year business economics student and vice
president of the Muslim Students Association.
Comments, feedback, problems?
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