The Pot-and-Kettle
Dialogue: Ratzinger’s Faux Pas and Karen Armstrong’s
Rejoinder
By Syed Nadeem Ahsan,
MD
New Jersey
Like
Pakistan Link’s columnist Dr. Nayyer Ali,
I too am somewhat nonplussed by the Catholic Pope's
amazingly misguided comments. But given the benefit
of the doubt ("Never attribute to malice that
which can be adequately explained by stupidity"),
begrudgingly if necessary, the man may have a point
about wanting to initiate a meaningful dialogue
between two of the world’s greatest religions;
not just a theological discourse but, more importantly,
a political one that addresses such discrepancies
as the ones that exist where it comes to Islam being
the fastest growing religion in the West –
implying the presence of the prerequisite freedoms
that need to exist for this to occur – and
any one converting to Christianity in an Islamic
country facing very substantial, often fatal, consequences;
and new mosques being built all across Europe and
North America (often with at least some state funding),
and the complete absence of churches in such citadels
of Islam as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait; and while Muslims
in the West are free to roam, there are entire cities
in the Islamic East where non-Muslims cannot even
set foot; …the list is long.
Unfortunately though, whatever his intentions, Ratzinger's
comments are little more than a case of the pot
calling the kettle black. And as could be expected,
the debate now is on which one is a darker shade
of black, the pot or the kettle. It can be hoped
though that this whole sordid incident would, if
nothing else, engender useful intramural debate
within the Islamic community itself such that our
past could be evaluated rationally to come up a
with a plan of action for the future. Sadly though,
one does not see that happening.
There is indeed irony in the leader of the Catholic
faith playing holier than thou. But it appears a
bit of a stretch when Dr. Ali in his polemic completely
denies Islam having been spread by force -- while
in the same breath accusing Europeans of this crime;
"In the great age of European imperialism,
Christian armies seized forcibly most of the Earth's
surface, and missionaries justified and followed
the armies."
Both religions have an appalling record in these
areas, albeit that, at different times in their
histories, one or other of them may have behaved
less atrociously than the other for a brief period
of time. Neither faith is in a position to point
the finger at the other. Nor, however, can either
religion be summed-up exclusively by reference to
these negative traits. On the whole, they have both
been great civilizers of humanity and are part of
our common human heritage.
But what of Arab and Turkish imperialism? Islam's
early history when viewed dispassionately may simply
amount mostly to Arab colonialism. What of the letters
that went to the rulers of Rome and Persia with
the Prophet's (SAW) seal? The message was clear:
accept Allah 'voluntarily' or we will come and make
you -- which is precisely what warriors like Abu
Ubaida and Khalid Bin Waleed did. In 711, Moorish
marines, after conquering North Africa in the name
of Allah, crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and into
Spain. They tore across the Iberian Peninsula, crossed
the Pyrenees, and made it deep into France before
they were finally defeated and driven out of France
by Charles Martel. Then came the ferocious Mamluks,
and then the Turks, who overran the very inner sanctum
of Christendom -- Constantinople -- forever transforming
the character of the city to an Islamic one. I daresay
the Muslims might have used a sword or two in this
process!
Then, in our own unique context, there’s the
history of the Indian subcontinent. If Muslims around
the world are claiming 'hurt' or 'insult' at the
Pope's comments about the sword being used to spread
religion in medieval times, then how should Hindu
Indians react to what happened to their culture
in the name of 'true' religion? Perhaps Hindus could
add some perspective to the current debate about
Islam's past and the methods used to introduce non-Muslims
to the compassion and mercy of Islam.
This is what the American historian Will Durant
wrote in his first volume of The Story of Civilization:
Our Oriental Heritage, published in 1935: (At the
time there was no such thing as 'Islamophobia')
"The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably
the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging
tale, for its evident moral is that civilization
is a precarious thing…. The Islamic historians
and scholars have recorded with great glee and pride
of the slaughter of Hindus, forced conversions,
abduction of Hindu women and children to slave markets
and the destruction of temples carried out by the
warriors of Islam during 800 AD to 1700 AD. Millions
of Hindus were converted to Islam by the sword during
this period."
Remember, this was done to a Hindu culture that
had never invaded another country and also had no
concept of religious conversion, let alone forced
conversion. Just imagine putting up with a 9/11-style
calamity every year for 17 years when Mahmud the
marauder came calling from Ghazni!
When the Hindus made their last big stand at Vijayanagar
in the sixteenth century, local Muslim historians
themselves recorded how it took five months to destroy
all the kingdom's sculpture and art. They described
how, loaded up with loot and slaves, the Muslim
armies marched home proclaiming that there was not
a breathing creature – either man or beast
-- left in a fifty miles radius of Vijayanagar.
There has been much destruction in history in the
name of religion, and we should put the past behind
us. However, as we know, Muslims can't progress
to a better common future if we are too sensitive
or immature to acknowledge the truths of the past
without demanding constant apologies for perceived
'insults'.
And with reference to Karen Armstrong’s recently
published article in UK’s Guardian -- which
has rapidly become compulsory reading for all Muslims
-- in which she severely castigates the “Islamophobic
Westerners, I would venture to say that she is arguably
the greatest living apologist for Islam. In her
article she demands that the West abase itself for
all its crimes, but denies the very existence of
any other culture's misdeeds.
Ms. Armstrong presents a one-sided view of history
in order to support her thesis. She looks at the
West from an Islamic point of view, rather than
adopting a dispassionate, objective stance, which
would more carefully apportion responsibility for
the current crisis in relations. By her account,
the West is intrinsically Islamophobic. But this
characterization ignores the strains of supremacism
and intolerance involved in Islam's past and to
which the West is responding with wariness and increasing
suspicion.
It'd be great if writers like Ms. Armstrong got
over their racism toward Muslims, and started treating
them as independent whole human beings, responsible
for their own actions, rather than viewing them
like Pavlovian dogs, unable to escape their conditioning
toward violence and therefore blameless for their
butchery. The real issue at the moment, for those
like Ms. Armstrong who insist on the inherent peacefulness
of Islam, is that 50 people a day are being tortured
and executed in Baghdad in a war between Sunni and
Shia Muslims. That the overwhelming majority of
Muslims are peaceful and civilized cannot obscure
the fact that ours has become a religion that can
spin into the most extreme – usually internecine
-- violence, which the perpetrators fervently believe
to be justified in the eyes of Allah.
It should be unacceptable for anyone to react to
a speech or cartoons with violence and murder. Period.
Full stop. Calling for holy war against Ratzinger
is unacceptable, as is shooting a nun, or burning
a church. These actions are not caused by the West
or by the speaker, no matter if you agree or disagree
with the words spoken. These acts are caused by
the people who do them. And until we come to grips
with this concept, no progress is possible.
(The author is a pain-management physician based
in Philadelphia, PA.
He can be reached at s.n.ahsan@comcast.net)
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