Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Islam: Try to be nice about each other

Islam

Try to be nice about each other

Sep 25th 2008 | CAIRO
From The Economist print edition

A Sunni preacher upsets the Shias

BECAUSE there is no recognised supreme religious authority in Sunni Islam—no one such as the pope among Catholics, for instance—Sunni clerics often suffer the indignity of being challenged, or even ridiculed, by their flocks. Outraged lawyers in Morocco, for example, recently filed a lawsuit against one sheikh after he declared it legal for girls as young as nine to marry. And Muslims the world over poured scorn on Sheikh Muhammad Munjad, a puritanical Palestinian preacher, when he suggested earlier this month, on a Saudi television show, that since mice are abhorrent to God, Mickey Mouse deserved to die.

Yet it comes as a surprise that Yusuf Qaradawi, the star preacher on the popular al-Jazeera satellite channel, who is a widely respected moderate on most issues, should find himself at the heart of a far bigger storm. The 81-year-old cleric, Egyptian by birth but long based in the Gulf state of Qatar, strayed onto tendentious ground by telling an interviewer he considered Shia Islam a heretical branch of the faith, and warning of a Shia attempt to “invade” Sunni societies by stealth and gain converts.

As might be expected, the response from Shias has been furious. Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanon’s most popular ayatollah, demanded that Mr Qaradawi produce figures to back up his claim of a Shia missionary drive and that he explain what danger it would be to Islam if one Sunni decided to adopt Shiism. Shia activists in Saudi Arabia have threatened a lawsuit, charging Mr Qaradawi with fomenting sectarian schism and requesting that he be forcibly retired on grounds of senility. A news agency in Shia-majority Iran posted a story that blasted the sheikh as a front for “international Freemasonry and Jewish rabbis”.

Some leading Sunnis have also been discomfited. Fahmy Huwaidi, a widely syndicated columnist who champions Islamist causes, said that while he could not dispute Mr Qaradawi’s authority in jurisprudence, his timing was politically disastrous, since maintaining Muslim unity was paramount at this stage. “He should be the first to know that there are forces at present who seek to ready public opinion for a military strike against Iran, and for stripping Hizbullah of its arms,” Mr Huwaidi chided.

Mr Qaradawi has responded to his critics by stressing his support for Iran’s right to nuclear energy and his long history of backing Muslim unity and Muslim causes around the world. Unlike Sunni extremists who deny that Shias are Muslim at all, he accepts their membership in the faith, he said. But as a Sunni scholar he could not overlook doctrinal differences. Unfortunately for the state of Muslim unity, it appears that most Sunnis tend to agree.

In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful

The importance of IslamOnline

All thanks to God, Whose blessings make possible all good deeds. He has guided us to this and without Him we would not be guided. Peace be upon the Prophet, who was sent as a mercy to the universe and a witness on all people, Muhammad, our beloved imam. Peace be upon his companions, those who followed his guidance, and struggled in his jihad to the Day of Judgment.

God has granted us the greatest gift known, and that is the gift of guidance to his religion, the complete and final religion. The Holy Qur'an says: "The day I have perfected your religion for you, completed my favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion."

One of the characteristics of this great religion is that it is universal. It is not for one nation without the others, one environment without the others, or one generation without the others. It is for the entire universe, for all people, at all times until God inherits the Earth and everything on it. The Qur'an says: "We sent thee not, but as a mercy for all creatures," and "Say: 'Oh men! I am sent unto to you all, as the Messenger of Allah.'"

It is our duty to carry this religion to all people around the world until they understand it, become interested in it, look for it, and enter it in surges as God would like. This is the duty of the Islamic nation. It is a collective obligation for this nation to propagate the message of this religion to the corners of the globe, and it is an individual obligation for the scholars of this religion to propagate Islam in all languages and tongues and be as God said: "We sent not a messenger except (to teach) in the language of his (own) people in order to make (things) clear to them."

I understand from this verse much more than what is apparent. It means that the English must be spoken to in English and the Chinese in Chinese. Easterners must be spoken to in the way Easterners speak to each other. City folk must be spoken to as city folk, and not in the country accent. The people of the 20th century must be spoken to in the language they understand, and not in the language of past centuries. We must use the tools needed to achieve that.

We used print, radio, and television. Today, there is a new medium known as the Internet. All religions have used it to call to their religions and sects. It is the duty of the Muslims to use this tool to call to their great religion, which God has granted them with, and leave others - who have lost their way - to call it.

The Islamic nation must prepare men to carry that out. This is what this major, global project - Islam Online - is doing. It carries the message of Islam to the world. It addresses non-Muslims to help them understand the creed, law, ethics and civilization of Islam. It addresses Muslims as well, to help them understand correct Islam, explain the realities of this religion, answer the questions, and correct the misconceptions they picked up through the faulty inherited culture or through the invading imported culture.

The duty of this network, or project, is to correct Muslims and call non-Muslims. The Qur'an says: "Who is better in speech than one who calls to Allah, works righteousness, and says, 'I am of those who bow in Islam?'" The unique feature of this project is that major scholars are responsible for it. They can be used for a reference for both Muslims and non-Muslims. This project is an obligation on the nation, imposed by the teachings of the religion and the calling. It is a need imposed by reality, our modern times and it is what non-Muslims are doing to call their religions.

The Muslims must be at the forefront of those calling to their religion; that is the obligation of this nation at this time, when relationships have intertwined, people are closer together and the world has become a giant village, or even a small village.

Our duty as Muslims is to call our religion and to teach it to people correctly from its pure sources. We should teach it as a creed, a way of worship, a set of behaviors and ethics, as a law and as an ideal civilization that connects the earth to the heavens, finds a place between the heart and mind, balances between rights and obligations and between individual rights and communal interests.

This is the great message that this project that this project strives for, and now we present it to you. May every Muslim contribute with what he can, because it is not the project of a state, or a group of people, but the project of the Islamic nation. The Qur'an says: "You are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind. Enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah," and "Thus have We made you a nation justly balanced. That ye might be witnesses over the nations, and the Messenger a witness over yourselves."

I ask God almighty to light our paths and guide our steps. May He help us carry out this dangerous mission: to call, educate and adjudicate so that our call to this religion may be the best it can, and for us to possess a certain knowledge in all we present. The Qur'an says: "Say thou: 'This is my way; I do invite unto Allah - with a certain knowledge - I and whoever follows me. Glory to Allah! And never will I join gods with Allah.'"

Peace be upon the Prophet Muhammad, his family and companions.

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