Watching Christianity nearly a century–fundamentalist Christians fighting ritualistic Christians fighting secularism, generally moving fundamentalism–>ritualism–>secularism–maybe the same for Islam?\u00a0 Their similarities make “Islam right now” a repetition of Christianity; their differences shout, Watch Out! Let us see where this leads us.<\/p>\n
Violence-prone fundamentalist evangelical Christians are still on top of the USA and some Nordic countries; but much less in ritualistic Catholic-Orthodox Christianity, meaning by far most of Europe. Beauty of worship, the psychology of confession, less verbalism; all help.<\/p>\n
Secularism makes faith so metaphorical for many that Christianity becomes only a ritual for Christmas-Easter, baptism-marriage-funeral (if there are no secular alternatives).\u00a0 Result: empty churches<\/em>.<\/p>\n Our secular age makes literal faith in dogmas difficult, and that tears at the faith.\u00a0 But this is where two major differences enter:<\/p>\n The point of gravity in Islam moves more easily from faith to practice; and may stop there. There is much built-in outer practice that will survive a decrease in inner faith. Result:\u00a0 full mosques<\/em>.<\/p>\n Moreover, the four pillars are compatible with key secular values:<\/p>\n A “good Muslim” does all that; what does a “good Christian” do? Going to mass and to the confession booth are church, not social, answers. The clear social answer is monastic orders, monks and nuns dressing, living apart from others, doing Samaritan work. Others are invited to do the same, but where-when-how? Easier leaving it to the state.<\/p>\n The West should stop talking about jihad and jihadism as “holy war”, even if also abused by some Muslims, and try to understand[i]<\/a>. Jihad means “to strive, exert oneself in the path of God”[ii]<\/a>. There are four aspects: inner, greater jihad fighting the evil in oneself; spreading Islam by the word; by good deeds, like honest business; and defensive jihad if Islam is trampled upon with moderate retribution. No aggression: “Fight in the way of God against those who fight you, but begin not hostilities. Lo! God loveth not aggression.<\/em>” (Qur’an 2:190).<\/p>\n Jihad accommodates honest business a religious duty.\u00a0 Like chosen people, promised land (Genesis 15:18) in Judaism makes fighting for Israel from Nile to Euphrates a religious duty. Like warfare to protect the West is a Christian duty, for God, King and Fatherland.<\/p>\n God is divine, King semi-divine as rex gratia dei<\/em>, Fatherland not. The gap between Christianity and secular Fatherland has been bridged by preventive war as sacrament[iii]<\/a>; reactive war against attack not needed.\u00a0 In EU, however, there is a mix of Fatherlands with no King and no God. Hence Br-exit for her to continue to Rule the Waves, for God or not.<\/p>\n Imagine Muslims abusing a Western sacred word, democracy, calling Western wars “democratism”.\u00a0 They would be right because people who profess democracy also often go to war.\u00a0 And they would be wrong by missing the whole idea. Like “jihadism”, “democratism” would locate the cause of war on the other side, and not in the relation between them; making the relation even worse instead of appreciating the profundity.<\/p>\n Christians give to Caesar that of Caesar and to God that of God, opening for secularism. Islam does not, but moves from fundamentalist true faith to ritualistic true practice are compatible with secularisms.\u00a0 Such as democracy, in Muslim Egypt and Turkey; Islam embracing “all equal under the law” as a special case of “all equal under Alla’h”.\u00a0 USA did not like it but preferred a military coup. To Washington, national evangelist, “true” democracy means “pro-USA” democracy.<\/p>\n How about IS, is it more I for Islamic faith, or more S for State with institutions for the other four pillars?\u00a0 It could be both, making transitions from true believers to true ritualistic practitioners easy. The problematic word is not “Islamic” but “State”.\u00a0 Pitted against USA and EU IS may take on their attributes; after Brexit more USA than EU.<\/p>\n The historical record is terrifying and long-lasting, including:<\/p>\n Six violences, three by each.\u00a0 The first four lasted centuries, a bad omen for the last two.\u00a0 But have a second look.\u00a0 In the first two the two religions played major roles; in the last two the state system, United States<\/em> vs Islamic State[vi]<\/strong><\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0 State wars are shorter; decades, not centuries. However, the wisdom of challenging the USA as an Islamic state rather than as an invincible ummah<\/em> with provinces can be disputed[vii]<\/a>.<\/p>\n We have given reasons that Islam will survive secularization better than Christianity, having much to fall back upon; how about IS vs US?<\/p>\n We might argue that both will lose because the state system itself is yielding to regionalism and localism. Islam is ready, with ummah<\/em> regionalism and imam<\/em> localism.\u00a0 Christianity, however, is split between Latin and Anglo America, US and EU, Catholic-Protestant and Orthodox Europe–much more than Sunni vs Shia and Arab vs non-Arab. And local churches are more for spiritual, not also for mundane affairs[viii]<\/a>.<\/p>\n On top of that: the world, even USA, is tired of endless warfare.\u00a0 Let Islam settle.\u00a0 The West and Christianity have serious work to do.<\/p>\n NOTES:<\/strong><\/p>\n [i]<\/a>.\u00a0 Gary Wills, the famous columnist, took the trouble to understand: “My Koran problem”, NYRB<\/em>, 24 March 2016.\u00a0 His Koran problem was that he knew nothing: “–we Christians begin with the greatest deficit of knowledge \/whereas\/those who know the Koran have quite a lot of knowledge about Torah and Gospel, since Allah sent them both to earth before he sent the Koran.–we Westerners cannot even remember it unless we learn something about the Koran. It’s about time”.\u00a0 Indeed.<\/p>\n [ii]<\/a>.\u00a0 Professor Mohammad Hashim Kamali, chairman of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies in Malaysia, in a lecture and in articles like “Concept of ‘jihad’ misunderstood”, New Straits Times<\/em> 14 July 2014.<\/p>\n [iii]<\/a>.\u00a0 Look at who comes to the funerals of Norwegian soldiers with mandate to kill in Afghanistan: the King, top bishops.<\/p>\n [iv]<\/a>.\u00a0 Robert Davis, Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters. White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800<\/em>, Palgrave Macmillan.<\/p>\n [v]<\/a>.\u00a0 Sarah Birke, “How ISIS Rules”, NYRB<\/em>, 5 Feb 2015: armed resistance being difficult, the alternative from the inside was silent resistance, or migration.\u00a0 Or what we have now, open US\/IS warfare.<\/p>\n [vi]<\/a>.\u00a0 But religious discourse did not wither away, here are two:<\/p>\n * George Bush 10 Feb 2003, on a possible attack on Iraq: “Liberty is God’s gift to every human being in the world”. (Washington Post<\/em>, 10 Feb 2003);<\/p>\n * Osama bin Laden 11 Feb 2003: “victory comes only from God, all we have to do is to prepare and motivate for jihad”. Audio message conveyed by jorgenj@peace.uit.no.<\/p>\n [vii]<\/a>. For a deep analysis of the present situation, see Abbas Aroua, “The Salafiscape in the Wake of the Arab Spring”, www.cordoue.ch<\/a>.<\/p>\n [viii]<\/a>. In a play, Maria og Magdalena; Lidelseshistorien og kristen=dommen<\/em> (the Passion Story and Christianity) Oslo: Kolofon 2016, this author tries to liberate Crist, driven by conscience and compassion, from the Church as Mary’s son, not God’s begotten by the Holy Spirit–as inspiration for us all.<\/p>\n _____________________________________<\/p>\n Johan Galtung, a professor of peace studies, dr hc mult, is founder of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment<\/a> and rector of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Peace University-TPU<\/a>. He <\/em>has published over 400 Editorials for TRANSCEND Media Service<\/a> and over 164 books on peace and related issues<\/em>, of which 41 have been translated into 35 languages, for a total of 135 book translations<\/em>, including \u2018<\/em>50 Years-100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives<\/a>,\u2019 published by the <\/em>TRANSCEND University Press-TUP<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Imagine Muslims abusing a Western sacred word, democracy, calling Western wars “democratism”. They would be right because people who profess democracy also often go to war. And they would be wrong by missing the whole idea. Like “jihadism”, “democratism” would locate the cause of war on the other side, and not in the relation between them; making the relation even worse instead of appreciating the profundity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[107,384],"class_list":["post-78908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial","tag-religion","tag-secularism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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