Sermons

August 31,2008
The Struggle For the Soul of Islam

The Struggle For the Soul of Islam
a sermon by the Rev. Mark Worth

READINGS:
1. From the sayings of Muhammad, as recorded in the Hadith of Bukhari
"Religion is very easy, and whoever overburdens himself in his religion will not be able to continue in that way. So you should not be extremists, but try to be near to perfection and receive the good things that you will be rewarded; and gain strength by offering the prayers in the mornings, afternoons, and during the last hours of the night."

2. From Robert W. Hefner, Department of Anthropology, Boston University, “September 11 and the Struggle For Islam,” found online at http://www.ssrc.org/sept11/essays/hefner.htm
"There is no clash of civilizations between Islam and the West. The really decisive battle is taking place within Muslim civilization, where ultraconservatives compete against moderates and democrats for the soul of the Muslim public. The globalization so widespread in our age will never bring about world-wide homogenization of culture and identity. What the process has done is make the interests we share with the great majority of Muslims all the clearer. One hopes that we Americans will not forget this fact as we move beyond the events of September 11. The lesson to keep in mind is that our suffering and outrage were shared by millions of Muslims. They look to us now to remember just how deeply we share political challenges and a common humanity."

3. From Eboo Patel, Acts of Faith: the Story of an American Muslim and the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation, Beacon Press, Boston, 2007
"At [YMCA] Leaders School, we sang a song called 'Pass It On.' It uses the metaphor of fire to speak about the sharing of religious faith. I would sing it around the house for weeks after Leadership School was over... In one of the moments when my father was feeling especially righteous about his 'Muslim-ness,' I overheard him expressing concern to my mother that the YMCA, which was after all the Young Men’s Christian Association, was teaching us Christian songs. 'Do you think they are trying to teach Christianity to our kids?' he asked, the tone of his voice a kind of auditory chest-thumping.
'I hope so,' my mother responded. 'I hope they teach the kids Jewish and Hindu songs, too. That’s the kind of Muslims we want our kids to be.'
In that offhand reply, overheard when I was a teenager, my mother guessed the arc of my life."

THE SERMON
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins (in North, Central and South America) on August 31, 2008, and ends this year on September 25, inshallah – “God willing” – as the Muslims say. It will be one day later for the rest of the world, based on the Islamic lunar calendar.
Because the Islamic calendar is strictly lunar, and the lunar month is, on average, one day shorter than the solar month, the month of Ramadan comes ten to twelve days earlier each year. So several years ago Ramadan fell around the time when Christians celebrate Christmas, but now it has moved into September. In a few years it will fall in June. Muslims fast from sunrise to sundown during Ramadan. They take no food or even water during the fast, which is meant to teach a person patience, self-control and humility. Smokers are required to give up smoking during the fast, providing a good motive to quit smoking.
Ramadan is not just about giving up food, and fasting is not even the most important aspect. According to the Hadith Abu Dawud, if a person cannot give up evil ways, violence, greed, lust, anger, and malicious thoughts, there is no sense in giving up food and drink – it would be meaningless. “There are many who fast all day and pray all night, but gain nothing but hunger and sleeplessness, “ according to the Hadith.
If Ramadan falls during the short days of December, the fast is not so hard. But when it comes during the long days of June it is much more difficult. The very young, the sick and very elderly, pregnant women, and nursing mothers are not required or expected to fast. At sundown during Ramadan, after prayers are said, the fast is broken and families and friends get together to eat and celebrate. Ramadan ends with the feast of Eid ul-Fitr. “Eid” is a Muslim word that means “festivity,” and “Fitr” means “to break the fast.” Muslims give money to the poor and wear their best clothes for the end of Ramadan on Eid.
Ramadan celebrates the revelation of the holy Qur’an (or Koran) to the prophet Muhammad. It is believed that the first revelation of the Qur’an took place during Ramadan. As this is such an important time on the Islamic calendar, I thought it would be a good time to discuss Islam and especially the struggle – or jihad – in Islam between the moderates and the hard-liners.

Jihad: the struggle ~
“Struggle” is a good word to start with, because that is the meaning of the Arabic word jihad. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Western press and the Department of Justice almost unanimously told us that jihad means “holy war.” That is more-or-less incorrect. It can mean “holy war,” similar to the Christian term, crusade. But Christians can also have a crusade against cancer, and Muslims can have a jihad against cancer.
The word jihad actually means struggle or strive. Jihad requires Muslims to “struggle in the way of God” or to struggle to improve oneself and society. The struggle for one’s own soul is often called “the greater jihad” in Islam. Memorizing the Qur’an by heart is one form of “the greater jihad.” Other examples would include cleaning the floor of the mosque; giving up smoking; overcoming anger, greed, hatred or pride; working for social justice; or forgiving someone who has hurt you.
According to one Hadith (a collection of the sayings of the prophet Muhammad), on his return from a battle the Prophet said, “We have we have finished with the lesser jihad; now we are starting the greater jihad.” He explained to his followers that fighting their enemies in battle was the lesser jihad, and fighting against the evils in oneself is the greater or more crucial jihad. This quotation is very influential among many Muslims, particularly Sufis. However, the quotation is disputed by some Muslims, especially among the hard-line extremists. Certainly jihad can be used as a propaganda term by both Muslim extremists and anti-Muslim extremists.
Islam has set rules for conducting “the lesser jihad,” or warfare. Islam prohibits fighting during a sacred month (such as Ramadan), but allows self-defense in that month if non-Muslims disregard the prohibition. Observance of treaties and pacts is stressed in the Qur’an (for instance, Qur’an 8:72). The Qur’an does allow war if you are directly attacked, or if people are being ill-treated or oppressed. Innocent civilians, women and children, the old and the sick are not to be harmed. Trees and crops are not to be damaged. Jihad does not include wars of aggression, border disputes, the intent to conquer, suppress or colonize others, or forcing others to accept a faith they do not believe. The Qur’an says, “If two sides quarrel, make peace between them. But if one trespasses beyond the bounds of the other, then fight against the one that transgresses until it complies with the laws of God; and if it complies, then make peace between them with justice, and be fair” (Qur’an 49:9).
I’ve read the Qur’an and I’ve read the Bible. I’m sure it would surprise many Americans to discover what I discovered – that the Bible is far more violent than the Qur’an. It’s not even close. For instance, in the Bible, in Numbers 31, the Israelites made war on the Midianites. In that war the Israelites killed every Midianite man. They took all of the women and children and cattle captive. When the army returned to the Israelite camp, Moses became very angry told them that was not good enough. He told them to put to death all of the Midianite boys and women – unarmed prisoners! But the virgin girls were to be kept alive and given to the army and the priests (Numbers 31:1-54). This is only one example – in the book of Joshua, the Israelites slaughter all of the inhabitants of town after town. Today we would call it genocide. There is nothing in the Qur’an like that.
But the Bible had many authors, and it speaks with many voices. In some places the Bible glorifies violence. In other places it tells us to put down our swords. The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves (Leviticus 19:18). When Jesus says the same thing in Matthew 22:39 he is quoting the Jewish Scriptures. Romans 12:21 says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Likewise, the Islamic Scripture, the Qur’an says, “Goodness and evil cannot be equal. Repay evil with what is better, then he who was your enemy will become your intimate friend” (Qur’an 41:34).

The struggle for religion ~
The problem is not the Qur’an, or the Hebrew Bible, or the Christian Bible. Any religion can be used for good ends or turned to evil ends. The problem is extremism.
Eric Rudolph is a Christian. He set a radio-controlled nail bomb that detonated at New Woman All Health Care in Birmingham, Alabama. It killed an off-duty policeman and left a nurse hobbled and half-blind. He also set of a bomb at the Otherside Lounge, a predominantly lesbian nightclub in an Atlanta suburb in February of 1977, injuring five people. And he set off a bomb at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta that killed Alice Hawthorne, a spectator, and injured 111 people. He claimed he was battling against socialism, abortion, and what he called “the homosexual agenda,” and he wrote a hate-filled letter that said, “We declare and will wage total war on the ungodly communist regime in New York and your legislative bureaucratic lackeys in Washington,” and he signed it “the Army of God.”
He pled guilty and is in jail, but he is not sorry. He is proud and defiant. He does what he does in the name of Christianity. And he did not act alone. He evaded the authorities in the woods of North Carolina for years, and many people cheered him on. Two country & western songs were written about him and a popular locally-selling T-shirt said, “Run, Rudolph, Run.” The day he was finally caught a woman from the area was quoted as saying “Rudolph is a Christian and I am a Christian... Those are our values. Those are our woods.”
Like the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Eric Rudolf is a Holocaust denier. Rudolph wrote an essay denying the Holocaust, and was drawing Nazi symbols in his schoolbooks, when he was in high school. How does a teenager come to hold such views? The answer is simple: somebody taught him. His father died when he was young. His mother followed a series of dangerous men who preached a theology of hate. He was raised to hate.
Rudolph calls himself a Christian, but his is not the Christianity of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, or of Mother Theresa or St. Francis of Assisi. Christianity can be used for good or ill, just like Islam. And the Islam of Osama bin Laden is not the Islam of the Sufi poet Rumi, or of the Aga Khan, the leader of the Isma’ili Muslims, who is known for his philanthropic work building schools and hospitals and promoting rural development in Africa and Asia.
In India, rioting Hindus in December of 1992 destroyed the Babri Mosque, which Hindus claim had been built over the birthplace of the god Rama. In 2002 mob violence inspired by Hindu nationalists claimed the lives of many Muslims in the Indian state of Gujarat, after Muslims had attacked a train carrying Hindu pilgrims. Human rights groups say that one to two thousand people were killed, and tens of thousands of Muslims were driven from their homes. The faith of those rioters, it would seem, is very different than the faith of Mahatma Gandhi.
The problem is not Islam, or Hinduism, or Christianity, or Judaism. The problem is not religion. The problem is the way in which some people use religion.
Like Eric Rudolph, like the “Christians” in the Ku Klux Klan and the Christian Identity movement, many young Muslims are being taught to hate. On July 7, 2005, three young Muslim men wearing backpacks full of explosives boarded trains on the London Underground, and a fourth got on a double-decker bus. Who did they kill? Well, the first of the dead to be buried was Shahara Islam, a 20-year-old British-born Bengali Muslim. She was on her way to her job as a bank teller. The man who killed her, Hasib Hussain, was also a young, second-generation South Asian Muslim. The two had much in common and should have been friends. Instead, he boarded the bus weighed down by the death he was carrying in his backpack. At her funeral, Shahara’s parents said, “Our dear daughter is returning to her Lord a bloodstained martyr.” Her funeral was attended by Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and Zoroastrians.
Another person killed was Giles Hart, former vice-president of the British Humanist Association, and an activist in the peace movement and the Anti-Slavery Society. His parents released a statement saying, “It is tragic that he fell victim to the very evil against which he had struggled.”
The bombers had fallen in with a group of radical Muslims in Britain who were preaching hatred against the West. Like Eric Rudolph, like the people in the KKK and the Aryan Nations and Christian Identity movements, they had been taught to hate. It is so important that we provide opportunities for our young people to learn tolerance and to value pluralism.

The struggle for Islam ~
But does Islam have a particular problem with extremist violence? In an on-line blog, British Muslim Ziauddin Sardar writes about the 2005 London bombings saying, “It is true that the vast majority of Muslims abhor violence and terrorism, and that the Qur’an and various schools of Islamic Law forbid the killing of innocent civilians. It is true, as the vast majority of Muslims believe, that the main message of Islam is peace. Nevertheless, it is false to assume that the Qur’an or Islamic Law cannot be used to justify barbaric acts. The terrorists are a product of a specific mind set that has deep roots in Islamic history... As a Muslim I am deeply upset by the attacks, the more so now I know they were the work of British Muslims. But as a Muslim I also have a duty to recognize the Islamic nature of the problem that the terrorists have thrown up. They are acting in the name of my religion; it thus becomes my responsibility to critically examine the tradition that sustains them.”
The question of violence is not unique to Islam. At the same time, it seems to be a particularly grave problem in Islam today. Muslims in Britain, in the United States, and around the world must confront this problem.
And we must be careful to not overreact. Sardar says that the current U.S. administration’s “war on terror” merely gives the monster what it most desires: violent reaction to sustain the cycle of violence. That is why Iraq has become a breeding ground for more extremism and terrorism. The answer, he says, must be found within the struggle for the soul of Islam. The answer is to nurture the humanistic and rationalistic traditions which have always been present within Islam.
American Muslim author Eboo Patel writes about being raised in a Muslim family that values pluralism. When he was a teenager attending the YMCA Leaders School, his father asked if he was being taught a Christian song and Christian values. His mother said, “I hope so. I hope they teach the kids Jewish and Hindu songs, too. That’s the kind of Muslims we want our kids to be.”
Patel writes, “America is a nation that has been constantly rejuvenated by immigrants. For centuries, they have added new notes to the American song. There is now a critical mass of Muslims in America.... Most estimates put the total population of Muslims in America at six million, about the same as the number of Jews and almost triple the number of Episcopalians.”
Islam, he says, must have a big tent for all believers, not just a small tent for the purists. Muslims need to contribute to all aspects of civilization, not obsess exclusively over a small number of causes. Muslims should be able to see both sides of an issue, and be understanding of other cultures and faiths. And he says that American Muslims need to be just as concerned with the future of this country as they are about the places of Islam’s glorious past.
Eboo Patel’s description of what he hopes from his Muslim co-religionists is a good description of what I hope we all may become, whatever our faith.
Amen.