The West and the Muslim World

CRISIS IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE WEST AND THE MODERN MUSLIM WORLD

by  Fr. Eliseo R. Mercado, Jr., OMI

Professor – San Beda University – Graduate School of Laws

Notre Dame University – Graduate School of Laws

Senior Policy Adviser of the Institute for Autonomy & Governance

                  There is a fundamental malaise in the modern Muslim World. Muslims sense that something has gone wrong with Islamic history.  The root of this malaise stems from an awareness that something is awry between the religion that God has appointed and the historical development of the world he controls.

           

                 Beginning in the 18th century, Muslim society began its serious decline.   There was a disintegration of military and political power.  There was enfeeblement of commercial and political power.  Intellectual effort stagnated.  An effete decadence infected art.   Religious vitality ebbed.  The writing of the great masters elicited commentaries rather than enthusiasm, and the classical systems were used to delimit the road that one must travel rather than provide the impetus for one's journey.

           

                 In brief, the Muslim World once gloried on its grip on the world and history from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 seemed to have lost the capacity to order its life effectively by the beginning of the 18th century.  Worst, the degeneration of the Muslim World coincided with the exuberance of the West..   At about this time, Western Civilization was launching forth on the greatest upsurge of expansive energy that human history has ever seen. Vitality, skills, wealth and power vastly accumulated.  With them, the West began not only to shape its own life but also the life of the entire world including the Muslim World.

            

                 During the 19th century, the Western pressure and domination increased.   The Dutch in Indonesia; The British in the subcontinent of India and Malaya; Russia in Central Asia; and the British and the French in North Africa and Middle East.  All at once, the western powers ruled Muslim society in full formality.  While the Ottoman Empire retained political sovereignty up to the end of World War I, it was independent without being free.  Apart from the matter of political control, Muslim society, once forceful, dynamic and alert, was, everywhere in drooping spirit, and subject both in initiative and delivery to forces outside Islam.

           

                 It is with the contemporary manifestation of this problem and crisis that is paramount in the understanding of the modern phenomena like Islamic revivalism, activism or modern aggressive Islamic movements like Muslim Brotherhood, Jemaah Islamiyya, al-Qaeda and ISIS.

           

                 The first Islamic movements in the modern period were protests against the internal deterioration.  It was a call to stop the decadence in Muslim society by summoning back the believers and the community to the first purity and order of Islam.   One of the earliest of those movements was the Wahhabiyah in 18th century Arabia.  It was puritanical, vigorous and simple.  Its message was straightforward: A return to Islam during the Medinan period.  It rejected the corruption and laxity of the contemporary decline.  It also rejected the accommodations and cultural richness of the Islamic empires  - the Ummayads, the Abbasids and the Ottomans.

         

                 The Wahhabis insisted on the Shari'a, the Hanbalite version stripped of all innovations developed through the intervening centuries.  Obey the pristine law - fully, strictly and singly  - is Islam; all else is superfluous.  This interpretation of Islam is strictly and seriously to be implemented.

           

                 The second Islamic movement that dominated the scene was the Pan Islamic movement of Jamalud-din Afghani (1839-97).  It was an Islamic revival movement that sought to reawaken the Muslims' consciousness of how they had once been mighty, but now is weak.  This recalling of erstwhile Muslim grandeur incited the Muslims to discard resignation in favor of plunging into the task of creating the kind of Islamic world that ought to be.  The Qur’an verse: "Verily, God does not change the condition of people until they change their own condition"  (S 13:11) had become the inspiration for the Muslim resolve to take into their own hands the refurbishing of the Muslim world and its earthly history.

           

                 Indeed this call to action was the transition from a non-responsible quietude to a self-directing determination.  The Pan Islamic Movement believed that Islamic history should once again march forward in full truth and full splendor.

           

                 The bitterness of the Muslim disillusionment of the West has gone very deep.  The West is perceived to work against them.  It is accused to engage on a deliberate vast enterprise to disrupt Islam.  Apart even from military and political domination, Western power has other manners of imposing its weight.  The most pervasive is the economics.

            

                 The Muslims perceive that the West has been bearing down upon the Muslim World with what appears to be saying in effect:  "give up those antiquated ways, those superstitions, those inhibitions; be modern with us, be prosperous, and be sophisticated.  Emancipate your women, your societies and yourselves!”

           

                 Many Muslims do succumb or see their children succumb.   The west continues to seduce them from their traditional loyalties. The reaction to perceived western attack is very visible, in the activist movements, chiefly the Ihwan al Muslimun  (The Muslim Brotherhood).  This activism represents in contemporary times the new determination to sweep aside the degeneration and stagnancy in the Muslim world.  It aspires to get back to a basis for Muslim society.  It is a vision, and a go forward in transforming the Muslims to become operative force at work in modern times.

            

                 Unfortunately for the adherents of this activist movement the re-affirmation of Islam has become an outlet for emotion.  It has become the expression of the hatred, frustration, vanity and at times destructive frenzy of a people who for long have been the victims of poverty, impotence and fear.  The vehemence and hatred in their literature point more to a group of people who have lost their way, whose heritage has proven unequal to the challenges of modernity.  The Pakistan counterpart of Ihwan is the Jama'at group.

           

                 The common recurrent themes in these Islamic revival movements are the following:

1.     Modernization is seen as a westernization and secularization;

2.     The sense that existing political, economic and social systems have failed;

3.     The disenchantment with and at times a rejection of the west; and

4.     The conviction that Islam provides a self-sufficient blueprint for state and society.

           

                 The contemporary Islamic revival movements have common grounds.  The key components of their program are:  

1.         Islam is the answer; 

2.         A return to the Qur'an and the Sunnah (traditions) of the prophet; 

3.         The community is to be governed by the Shari’a (Islamic Law); and

4.         All who resist, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, are enemies of God.

By way of conclusion…

I conclude this presentation by recognizing that the wounds of centuries of colonialism are, indeed, very deep and closely familiar to individuals, peoples and communities.  The conquests, subjugations and colonialism brought trauma and pains that continue to exercise tyranny over the spirit of the peoples. Notwithstanding the independence that came after World War II, the politics and economics of former colonies continue to be dominated by the west and the relations between and among peoples are, largely, shrouded in mutual suspicion and mistrust.         

I wonder if this is what the martyred President of Egypt Anwar Sadat expressed at the Knesset during his historic visit of the Holy City of Jerusalem.

“… Yet, there remains another wall.  This wall continues and constitutes a psychological barrier between us, a barrier of suspicion, a barrier of rejection, a barrier of fear, of deception, a barrier of hallucination without any action, deeds or decision.  A barrier of distorted and eroded interpretation of every event and statement. It is this official statement as constituting 70% of the whole process. Today, through my visit to you, I ask why don’t we stretch out our hands with faith and sincerity so that together we might destroy this barrier?”

The power and economic relations have to give birth to a new partnership between the west and the Muslim that heals and empowers. New Politics and fair economics would shape that meaningful relationship and partnership. Our common humanity and concern for the survival of the planet, as well as, our religious traditions have the power to transform conflictual relationships to common enterprise that saves and nurtures not only our common humanity but also the planet earth.

Before I end this presentation allow me tell yet another story - a parable of the Little Salt Doll taken from a Zen Buddhist tradition.

“There is a wonderful story about a little salt doll.  The doll had the urge to discover the world and went on a journey, experiencing all kinds of new places and adventures. Then one day she came to the edge of the sea and was quite astounded by the restless surging mass of water. “What are you?” she cried. “Touch me and you will find out,” answered the sea.  So the little salt doll stuck her toe in, and had a truly lovely sensation. But when she withdrew her foot, alas, her toe has disappeared. “What have you done to me”? she cried. “You have given something of yourself in order to understand,” the sea replied.”

“The little salt doll decided that if she really wanted to know the sea, she would have to give more of herself. So next she stuck her whole foot, and everything up to her ankle disappeared. Surprisingly, in an explicable way, she felt very good about it. So she continued going further and further into the sea, losing more and more of herself, all the while understanding the sea more deeply.  As a wave broke over the last bit of her, the salt doll was able to cry out, “Now I know what the sea is. It is I.”

There are only three kinds of people who are capable of the act akin to the doll salt.  First, the people of faith second the people of art and last but not the least are the people “touched” by God (a euphemism for fanatics and the crazy).  But in a real sense, building and creating new humanity and civilizations are like the sea.  And to really know and understand it fully there is the need to give ourselves like the little Salt Doll. Paradoxically, religion provides that élan and passion to let go and lose all – the self-expenditure required that others might live and live to the full.

Selected Bibliography (for the present section)

1.     Abu-Nimer, Muhammed. Reconciliation, Justice and Coexistence: Theory and Practice. Lanham, MO: Lexington Books, 2001.

2.     Banton, M. (ed.). Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion. NY 1966.

3.     Barazangi, Nimat et al. (eds.). Islamic Identity and the Struggle for Justice. Gainesville, Fla. U. Press of Florida 1993.

4.     Berger, Peter. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. NY: Doubleday 1967.

5.     Biggar, Nigel (ed.). Burying the Past: Making Peace and Doing Justice after Civil Conflict. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2000.

6.     Colletta, Nat J. and Michelle L. Cullen.  Violent Conflict and the Transformation of Social Capital:  Lessons from Cambodia, Rwanda, Guatemala, & Somalia. Conflict Prevention Series 2000, Washington DC. World Bank.

7.     Connor, Walter. Ethno-nationalism: The Quest for Understanding. Princeton: PUP 1994.

8.     Gellner, E. Postmodernism, Reason and Religion.  London: Rutledge, 1992.

9.     Hampson, F.O. Nurturing Peace: Why Peace Settlements Succeed or Fail. Washington DC: USIP Press 1996.

10.  Hange, Roy. Curtains of Fire: Religious Identity and Emerging Conflicts. MCC Web page.

11.  Harowitz, Donald. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley: UCP 1985.

12.  Hefner, R. W. The politics of Multiculturalism: Pluralism and Citizenship in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2001.

13.  Hefner, R. W., & Horvatich, P. Islam in an era of Nation-States: politics and religious renewal in Muslim Southeast Asia. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1997.

14.  Hewstone, M & Brown, R (eds.). Contact and Conflict in Intergroup Encounters. Oxford & NY: Basil Blackwell 1986.

#Badaliyya-Philippines

August 13, 2019