Islam and Identity Crises

Islam, at the moment, is going through a difficult time because it suffers from internal identity crises. It is, like any other religion in the world, divided into denominations and schools of thought. After more than fourteen centuries of history, Islam goes into what I call ‘religious puberty’. This period carries with it all the turmoil of moving from childhood to enter the age of maturity. Christianity passed through the same period of religious puberty in the Middle Ages and had its share of dilemmas and identity crises for centuries. Today, however, the situation is different because war is not anymore horses, swords, spears and castles. In war today, individual people and entire counties use the most sophisticated and complicated technology ever known to humanity. Such technology controls weapons of mass destruction - even the ability to destroy the entire planet, or at least the human race.

In this situation humanity cannot afford waiting for centuries to see how Islam would emerge from this critical period in its history. It might be too late. I hope I am not painting too dark a picture of our situation. The solution to the identity crises in Islam does not come from the American style of war against terrorism or the American style of democracy imposed on the countries of the Middle East. The American and the British invasion of Iraq has not helped the region to move on to a more peaceful time. On the contrary, it inflamed the whole area and proved to be an ignorant, foolish and childish decision taken by superpowers. The bloodshed, poverty, health crises, hunger and many other problems have increased and the country has entered into a maelstrom of violence and death. The only solution is education, dialogue and listening. Before we try to impose a certain way of resolving political conflicts on any part in the world, we need to understand the cultural – including language, art, philosophy, history and religion.

Islam is an evolving religion. It is searching for its proper foundation so that it can build its existence alongside other religions in the world without trying to eliminate them or exist in continuous hostility and conflict with them. It has to face the most problematic issue – which is the relationship between state and religion. The West has an important role to play, not by military and cultural invasion, but rather by listening, understanding and respecting the context of every country.

The Heavy Yoke

Politicians think that if they produce more and more laws, rules and regulations, they can control crime, fanaticism, antisocial behaviour and excessive use of alcohol or drugs. They remind me of the religious leaders in the time of Christ who built thousands of rules and regulations on the basis of the laws of the Torah in order to keep the people under their control. Today, we need a different approach and strategy to combat all these problems. It is time to shift our focus. We need to start digging behind the social diseases to tackle the issues that cause problems instead of turning Parliament into a factory of laws.

People everywhere – in schools, streets and workplaces – reflect how they grew up and the situation in their homes. When homes in our society are broken then no law can stop the damage which can be inflicted on the young generation and the hurt they may cause to themselves and to their environment. Christ challenged the leaders in his time about this specific point. He accused them of burdening the people with extra unnecessary rules and laws in order to keep their heavy hand on their lives and minds.

We desperately need to put more resources, effort and time into looking after families instead of putting them under a painful siege of more rules and more restrictions. All these rules are supposedly made to keep the peace in society and to reduce violence, resentment and fear. Families are facing extremely serious situations, financially, culturally and religiously. Our communities are becoming increasingly diverse. Leaders think that the more they have a grip on other people’s lives and relationships, the more harmony they can create. This is completely false because harmony comes as a result of a high sense of responsibility and a mature understanding of citizenship. Civil law has its very important role to play but we must not use it as a ‘quick fix’ for problems which should be addressed on a human and social level. Obviously the more love we bring to our homes the less stealing, killing, raping, and knifing etc.. No-one who loves would do all of these horrible things. Laws, nevertheless, would never stop these things happening because the defect is in the mind and in the heart and what flows out of that can never be stopped by law.

Christ went beyond the letter of the law and challenged the leaders in their ways of applying it. He put the emphasis on building healthy and strong human relationships based on respect, understanding and most importantly love which, for Christ, was the ultimate value and the highest motivation. Before we jump into generating endless chains of laws, we’d better create some support systems which enable relationships in the communities to flourish and grow by laying the right foundation of healthy and strong families. The real debates in this country should be about how we can all do our bit to find more creative and effective solutions for the deep and complicated problems that hit families and homes and cause them to break. As Christians, we look to Christ to access God’s way of dealing with this subject. Jesus revealed to us the very heart of God when he kept bringing love to the heart of human relationships. Christ never understood love as a sentimental feeling but rather a power for change and a force for good. He lived what he preached and because of that his teachings are authentic. It is for us now to learn and to apply what he taught and to understand how he lived the values he preached and believed in.

Pride and Prejudice

I would like to explore with you the changes we are going through in this country which could change the very foundation of this culture. When I gave a seminar about the Awareness Course and the importance of the relationship between religion and culture for a group of military officers, one of them asked me the following question: why should I be proud of my culture? I was delighted to hear this question because I simply believe, in this country, that people are more concerned with apologising for their culture than either understanding or being proud of it. It is sad to see so many people here who cannot find enough reasons to celebrate their culture and who don’t find it important to be proud of it. My answer to this officer was surprising to him because it was based on the fact that we are all the products of the fruits of our cultures. He did not see that his culture formed who he is. When we say culture we mean history, language, climate, customs, religion and many other aspects. If the history of my country plays a role in forming my personality, how could I be ashamed of it? I could be critical of it and this is very healthy but after all I should embrace it and learn from it but not be imprisoned by it. The problem today especially with young people is that they are prejudiced against and ignorant of their own culture. Eradicating our prejudice against our own culture is vital step on the way to combating prejudices against other cultures.

Many people in this country go too far in apologising for who they are and what they do as a result of trying ‘not to offend others’ in the name of politeness. As much as I respect this attempt to make other cultures feel welcome and accepted, I believe this is political correctness is going too far. It is like eating ten bars of chocolate at the same time. Isn’t it time for the people in this country to stand up for their culture, tradition, history and religion?

Extreme secularism is the foundation of this pressure on people to be ashamed of their culture in order to identify themselves with the prevailing culture of consumerism which could be easily the dominant colour for everybody and in this way we avoid offending anyone and we all become slaves to the market.

We still need a lot of awareness to get to a stage where we feel secure in who we are without compromising our religion or any aspect of our culture.

Religion in puberty

Religion passes through childhood and puberty before reaching maturity. Christianity went through its puberty in the Middle Ages with much bloodshed, cruelty and hostility. At that time Christianity was used for political ends, to gain power and to suppress dissent. We must understand that Christianity does not have in its core a political agenda although it becomes involved in politics through Christians who work in this field. Islam now passes through its own age of puberty. This period, naturally, is critical and includes hostility and rejection of The Other. Islam has its own unique circumstances and background that make it essentially different from Christianity when it comes to the understanding of politics. Islam has had from the very beginning ambitious political dreams starting with the Prophet himself. So it is wrong to approach Islam in a sentimental or hostile way. The wise and proper way to approach Islam is to understand its cultural, religious and sociological stories. It is to have the courage to face the difficult issues concerning the hard verses in the Quran and to try to put them first in their cultural context and then apply them to our contemporary culture. Islam defines itself by two programmes which go together and are inseparable. The first one is the spiritual one and the other one is the political one. These work in conjunction and combination with each other. It is imperative for us not to treat Islam as if it is Christianity written in a different way; to do that would be extremely unfair for both faiths. Although these two monotheistic faiths have much common ground, their differences should not be underestimated or ignored. Paying attention to both the similarities and differences is the only way to begin to grasp the situation through which many parts of the world are passing.

The Sudan Saga

The story of Mrs. Gibbons reflects clearly the huge confusion we face in understanding the relationship between culture and religion in Islam on two levels. The first one is the confusion in interpreting the story within Islam and that is shown through the immense difference of opinions within the Muslims inside the Islamic countries. Such issues like Mrs. Gibbons’ will keep popping up due to the serious division inside Muslim communities around the world concerning the way to link religion and culture and how to respond to any transgressions or criticism.
The other level is the low awareness in this country about the danger of living in a Muslim fundamentalist regime such as Sudan where religion is never just a private matter.
We must keep asking the Muslims here to talk about the relationship between Islam and culture because only through such dialogue will deeper clarity emerge about how much of the Muslims' practices are religious and how much are cultural. Problems of relating religion and culture become much more complicated when they happen in a religion which is based on a divine law like Islam.
As Christians, the time has come to prepare ourselves to live in an open world which demands a great deal of awareness and readiness to face a reality which is different than twenty years ago. It is time to prepare ourselves to live in an ever changing society by revisiting our roots and identity in order to know our role in this difficult time.