Islam, blasphemy and free speech: a surprisingly modern conflict
The founders of Political Islam are known as the innovators of this trend. That is why we can see many secular scholars, writers, and poets at the start of the twentieth century writing against Islam in many different dimensions, such as Zaki Naguib Mahmoud, who is known for advocating positivist philosophy in the Arab world, and Najib Mahfouz, who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature.
The sociopolitical background
The notion of religious actions is more problematic than is popularly supposed. It is not merely a divine spiritual matter which is separated from social political actors. Rather, it is nested within and shaped by other human dimensions.
As a result, the sociopolitical background can change any religion — to be more tolerant or more fanatical, for example. Sociologist Bryan S. Turner describes this situation in Christian society:
Given the growth of parliamentary institutions, welfare legislation and commitment to egalitarian ideology, it is small wonder that contemporary Christians cannot accept a description of God as an autocrat. Jesus, once our lord and master, has become Superstar.
This process took a long time in Western societies to become today’s accepted nature of great tolerance and co-existence. The West paid the price through centuries of religious, sectarian, and political wars.
Meanwhile, the status of the Muslim world has declined continuously in the contemporary period. This is due to various reasons, including ongoing political instability, the failure to build a state of institutions and a real civil society, and destructive imperialist interventions.
Western colonial powers handed the Middle East to a series of tyrannical governments. Failed attempts at building a nation-state have led to the rise of Chauvinism and military regimes which mostly have been supported by the great western powers.
The recent popular revolutions have resulted in the rise of criminal Salafi gangs. Many were supported by the West for different reasons, such as confronting the Soviet Union in al-Qaeda’s case, or anti-Israel regimes in Islamic State’s case.
From al-Rumi to al-Baghdadi
It might be shocking for many to look back at the words of thirteenth-century Muslim scholar Jalal ad-Din al-Rumi, who had a strong theological and jurisprudential background. He said: “Go on! Drink the wine of the Beloved! In that faith, Muslims and pagans are one.”
One can see pluralistic thoughts, such as the aforementioned works of many Muslim scholars in the past, which have been influencing Muslim societies widely.
A long distance has passed to see Islamic State’s Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in place of al-Rumi, but this underscores the argument that mainstream Muslims remain against the barbaric actions of fundamentalists. It must not be forgotten that many Muslims are suppressed in their countries for the same reasons that Charlie Hebdo was attacked.
Let’s help Muslims to represent “a more authentic image of Islam, as so many of them desire, reiterating that Islam is a religion of peace, compatible with respect for human rights and peaceful co-existence,” as Pope Francis said in a recent phone call with Iraqi Christians.
Ali Mamouri is Ph.D. Candidate at the Institute for Social Justice at Australian Catholic University. This story is published courtesy of The Conversation (under Creative Commons-Attribution/No derivatives).
