Challenges for the Twenty-First Century Islam - Essay Example

Challenges for 21st century Islam 2010 Introduction In the 21st century, Islam, among all religions, is facing the greatest amount of challenge. While political Islam has been denigrated as inherently violent, even the modernist Muslims are challenged to reform and align with more secular religions for the existence of the religion. The center of Islam is in the Arab world, with Saudi Arabia maintaining the guardianship of Mecca and Medina and the Haj pilgrimage while the Shia Iran and other sects within Islam challenge the dominance of the Arabs (Watson, 1997). Even though Saudi Arabia controls considerable amount of wealth on the basis of petroleum reserves, there is the constant threat of emergence of other Muslim regions emerging in dominance. However, the legacy of the Arabs goes back to the lineage of Ishmael, the half bother of Isaac, the ancestor of the Jews. The inheritors of Ishmael were wandering people who intermixed with other races though marriage, even as the Hebrews for the most part, shunned from a racial blend (Nosotro, n.d). Over the more recent years, the Middle East has become the most unstable region in the world and the bedrock of fundamentalism. There has been a growing rift between the secular nation-states and the Islamic states and the resulting tension between the two. The modern developments in science and technology and the attitude of the reformists within Islam have posed several challenges to the traditionalists and fundamentalists. This paper will discuss various challenges that modern-day Islam is facing in terms of politicization that has made the religion ostensibly violent and the clash of civilizations that it faces as well as developments like medical technology and information technology that have forced the religion to alter and the pressures on reformation on modernist attitudes like feminism. Political Islam Many of the problems of the Muslim world emerge from lack of resources, income and education. This gives birth to terrorism in these lands that seek vengeance as a payback to the wealthy and affluent societies of the world. It has been observed that prolonged poverty and domination trigger despair leading to insurgency and terrorism. Such situations deprive people of their own rights and possibilities turning nations into terrorist enrolling places. Governments in underdeveloped countries every now and then manifest their politically and economically closed attitudes provoking misery amongst its people who gradually increase in number only to become easy recruits to the terrorist cause. Countries become susceptible to terrorist rebellion when the rates of unemployment soar, mostly among males aged 15 to 35 as has been verified frequently with feeble and weakening states. Mercenaries are recruited from the ranks of agitated, unemployed youths simply seduced into crimes holding up terrorism. The menace of terrorism increases when government institutions and the services have only a weak presence also breeding in a country where the people have a corrupted government. Finally, education is one of the strongest weapons against terrorism and the battle against fanatical Islamist militants can be won over provided programs can be planned for the Muslim world to counteract the challenge posed by radical Islam. Such schools that teach fundamentalism and terrorism are rampant in countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the public education system is scrawny (Natsios, 2004). Among Islamist fundamentalists, the ideologues are far more dangerous than the ones who engage in violence, throwing bombs and killing people. They seek to propagate a world view that seeks to establish a new world order that would separate the Islamist world from the rest of the world. While the aim of propagation of Islam is to universalize the religion is in contradiction with the separation between the Islamic world and the rest of the world, the challenge of moderates is to reconcile between the two. Over the last decade or so, the Islamist fundamentalists have not really achieved in establishing the new world order but it certainly has resulted in a disorder. Their view of the tenets of the Islamic world has resulted in attacks on the western world (Tibi, 1998). Clash of civilizations According to Huntington (1998),world politics have come to be shaped by the split among people and the main source of global conflict will be cultural. Civilizations are distinguished from each other by religion, history, language and tradition, differences that are profound and growing in magnitude. From the Middle East to Central Asia, such divided mores of people have become the warring frontiers of the future. In this up-and-coming era of cultural clash, the United States will have to form alliances with related cultures and extend its values to the extent possible. The West will have acclimatized with unfamiliar civilizations rather, but will have to be ready to meet head-on with them if required. Yet at the same time civilizations will have to be more tolerant towards each other. Huntington (1998) stresses that with the end of the Cold War, global politics left its Western bias, its focus shifting to the interface between the West and non-Western civilizations and among non-Western civilizations, the peoples and governments of non-Western civilizations no more waiting as the objects of history as targets of colonialism but as a partner of the West to change and mold history. He says that the lack of primary "core states" impeded the growth of the Islamic world showing that Muslim countries are engaged in far more inter-group fighting than others. That is why the war in Bosnia consolidated into an ethno-religious conflict. He underrates the chance that such cracks could have been kept away from (Huntington, 1998). Usually, the weak states of the Muslim world harbor “jihadis” thus providing the anti-terrorism world equating Islam with violence. “Failed states”, according to Dempsey (2006), offer appealing scenes for terrorist groups looking forward to escape counterterrorist activities by the U.S and its “partners in the Global War on Terror”. State failure among other things includes, “the disintegration and criminalization of public security forces, the collapse of the state administrative structure responsible for overseeing those forces and the erosion of infrastructure that supports their operation.” Terrorist groups, then, operate “with two very different types of cell”- terrorist “nodes” and terrorist “hubs”, the first one responsible for the actions, the second being the ideological centers. The most violent of all Islamist groups, al Qaeda, has set up such “hubs” in certain sub-Saharan countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone, extorting money and getting involved in illegal trade in diamonds and arms. Al Queda and Al Ittihad Al Islami (another Muslim militant group) operate throughout the East Africa. His analysis concludes that it is easier to curb the activities of the “nodes”, the “hubs” remaining more influential He also censures the United States for no taking adequate precautions and safeguards against the growth of such hubs (Dempsey, 2006). Advancement of general education and knowledge is essential for the purpose of the Muslim world coming out of the shadows of ignorance. As most of the modern education and knowledge emerges from the western world, there is an inherent tendency of resistance of Islam to accept knowledge. The challenge is to assimilate some of the secular tendencies without turning explicitly western in attitude. Maintaining the traditional sensibilities that would protect the faith as well as adopting secular knowledge entails the treading of a fine line of balance. New Medical technologies The Muslim doctor takes the oath “to protect human life in all stages and under all circumstances, doing (one’s) utmost rescue from its death, malady, pain and anxiety. To be, all the way, an instrument of Allah’s mercy, extending…. Medical care to near and far, virtuous and sinner and friend and enemy”. Islamic doctors need to hold regular conferences on new medical technologies on organ transplants, brain death, assisted conception, intensive care, and testicular and ovarian grafts (emro). While western bioethics depends on the rights of the patients, the Islamic medical ethics is directed by the duties of the physicians. The traditional health beliefs of Muslims are based on Unani, which is a kind of therapy based on mind-body unanimity. According to Unani, the environment, food & beverages, movement & rest, sleep & wakefulness, eating & evacuation and emotions determine the state of health (Periyakoil, n.d). Diseases are caused when any of these factors are obstructed, according to the traditional beliefs. Many Muslims believe that the religious priests may cure diseases and that diseases may be tests imposed by God. Hence, there is often a resistance to formal western therapy and modern medical technologies. Religious beliefs of Muslims affect the lifestyle as well. For example, most religious Muslims follow the routine of five namaaz (prayer) a day and the Friday special namaaz. The month of the Ramadaan is meant for fasts during the day when drinks, food, smoking or sexual relationships are not allowed during daylight. Muslims eat only Halal, or sanctified meat, and are not allowed to eat blood, porcine or Haraam, or unsanctified meat, including all forms of pork like bacon and ham (Periyakoil, n.d). There may be resistance to using porcine insulin as well. Traditional Muslims prefer same sex nurses and particularly women prefer women nurses for X-rays, physical examination, mammogram, etc. Many Muslims wear religious accessories like amulets and skull caps. These should not be removed without the consensus of the patient while undertaking medical treatment. Besides, sensitive issues like sexuality, political inclinations and cultural peculiarities should not be enquired upon since these might affect the patients’ sensibilities. Information Technology With the rapid growth of information technology and its importance in the dissemination of knowledge, the Islamic world faces the challenge of using the technology for its benefit. Since the 1960s, Islamic theological centers have used books, magazines, softwares and databanks for the purpose of dissemination of Islamic knowledge. As a result, there are at present a number of internet sites and computer softwares and databanks on Islam. It is essential to compile a comprehensive thesaurus of Islamic science that could be used in Islamic studies (Irandoc, 2004). Despite the thesis of clash of the Islamic civilization and the other civilizations, it needs to be recognized that there are a variety of civilizations even within the Islamic world, like the Indo Islam, the Arab Islam, the African Islam and so on. Hence, there is no holistic Islamic worldview. Even globalization, which has affected all aspects of life, has not resulted in unifying the Islamic worldview. Despite the unifying technological globalization, which has resulted in the formation of the global village, has not created a uniform outlook on Islam (Tibi, 1998). Neither has globalization spread the secular western values to the Muslim world. Western education and values have made inroads into the Islamic world but has not really gained roots in these countries. Even the elites, who are typically expected to adopt a western lifestyle, have a tendency to decouple from western values. This results in cultural revival that ends in a political strategy that has become easy to disseminate through the easy availability of information technology. Reform and reinterpretation The most serious reformist contention to Islam has been on the issue of gender that focuses on the typical issues of feminism, like justice, egalitarianism, equity, compassion and tolerance. The questions raised include who has the right to read and interpret the scriptures and produce knowledge. Feminists have challenged the monopoly over the authority of the Imams to interpret the Quran as well as the received ideas of the Hadith. The feminists do not dispute the Islamic texts completely but attempt to reinterpret the texts in a new light. The reformists note that women have played an important role in the early oral texts but have become more insignificant after the codification of Islam since when scriptural texts have been dominated by the men. Islamic legal texts have also been written by men as a result of which the legal system in the Muslim world has been dominated by the men. Feminist modernists attempt to correct the gender discrimination in the legal framework. For the purpose, feminists have reinterpreted the Islamic law, with a “liberatory praxis” and a “Quranic hermeneutics of liberation” as the objective (Mirza, 2008). Thus, the agenda towards egalitarianism is not an outright rejection of Islamic law but a reinterpretation of the same. Conclusion Thus, the challenges to Islam in the modern times have been on various front. On the one hand, the ideological thrust of violence and fundamentalism that has been in the forefront of the worldview of Islam has led to a growing conflict between the Islamic and non-Islamic world. However, the greater challenge is to integrate modernist notions of Islam so that the traditionalists and fundamentalists do not take over the religion and dividing the world into a Islamic and a non-Islamic world through a clash of civilizations. Globalization has resulted in a growing influence of the western values on Islam as well as a growing conflict between Islam and western notions. The essential challenge is to bring about a consensus between two views. The major developments in western knowledge, particularly in terms of medical technology and information technology, have influenced the knowledge parameters of Islam. These have also influenced the ways technology has been used distinctively in the Islamic world. The modernists and the reformists have attempted to reinterpret the Islamic texts in order to bring about a more egalitarian society, particularly in terms of gender. Works Cited Natsios, Andrew, Fighting Terror with Aid: Underlying Conditions that Foster Terrorism, Europe, Vol. 26 (3) - Fall 2004, retrieved from Harvard International Review, http://hir.harvard.edu/articles/1271/ Huntington, Samuel P, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Simon & Schuster; 1st Touchstone Ed edition, 1998 Dempsey, Thomas A. Counterterrorism in African Failed States: Challenges and Potential Solutions. Carlisle barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute of U.S. Army War College, 2006. 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Retrieved from http://www.stanford.edu/group/ethnoger/pakistani.html Mirza, Qudsia, Islamic Feminism and Gender Equality, ISIM Review, Spring, 2008, http://www.utoronto.ca/wgsi/shahidian/articles/Islamic%20Feminism.pdf Read More