Islam:а
First of a Seriesаааааааааааааааааааааа
УIt is essential to realize that Muslim
civilization is a cultural entity that does not share our primary
aspirations."а So writes Professor
G. E. von Grunebaum, one of Europe's profoundest students of Islam.а I shall enlarge upon Grunebaum's
understanding of Islam and other prominent orientalists in this series of
articles.а I shall also quote from the
writings of Muslims themselves, of "conservatives"--really
"fundamentalists"--as well asа
"modernists" and even secularists.а Diverse Muslims from Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, and
Pakistan as well as Muslims teaching in European and American universities will
be quoted the better to appreciate the spectrum of contemporary Islamic thought
and action.
Such topics as "Islam and
Democracy," "Islam and Arab Nationalism," "Can Islam
Reform?" will be discussed in this series the better to understand the
conflict between Islam and the West in general, and between Islam and Israel in
particular.а The reader will be able to
judge for himself the adequacy or inadequacy of Israel's policies toward her
Arab-Islamic neighbors.
When von Grunebaum says (in his book Modern Islam) that Islam does not share
"our primary aspirations," he means that what animates Islamic
civilization is its "basic antihumanism" (p. 40).а By this he means that Islam "is not
vitally interested in analytical self-understanding, and it is even less
interested in the structural study of other cultures, either as an end in
itself or as a means toward clearer understanding of its own character or
history."а
In other words, Islam is not interested
in human things per se, that is, apart from theological considerations.а Indeed, Islam relentlessly refuses to regard
man to any extent whatever as the arbiter or measure of things.
For Islam the study of other cultures
is the study of error and imperfection.а
Hence, to study other cultures for their own sake does not deserve any
supreme effort.а The non-Muslim world
may be interesting enough, but its foundations have been rendered obsolete by
the final revelation of the last of the Prophets, Muhammad, a revelation which
manifested the changeless norms of individual behavior and social structure
(ibid., p. 41).
Not that Islamic society and ideology
did not undergo any change unnoticed by the believers.а But the change, to the faithful, was merely
a manifestation of human failing, a temporary lapse which eventually will be
corrected by a resurgence of true believers.а
For the Islamic community has come into being to extend the law of Allah
throughout the world, that is, to establish a universal Islamic state (ibid.,
p. 42).
This attitude leads Arabs to an extreme
concern with power and success in history.а
Indeed, within a century of their rise, the Arabs became the masters of
an empire extending from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the confines of
China, an empire greater than Rome at its zenith.а In this period of unprecedented expansion, writes D.G. Hogarth,
they "assimilated to their creed, speech, and even physical type, more
aliens than any stock before or since, not excepting the Hellenic, the Roman,
and the Anglo-Saxons, or the Russian."
This success story not only fills
Muslims with inordinate pride, but also with contempt for other peoples.аа The late Professor Yehoshafat Harkabi,
Shimon PeresТ mentor, notes "There are many examples in Arab national
literature of comparisons between the Arabs and other peoples, of
self-glorification by denigration of others."
Grunebaum offers an interesting
contrast.а Whereas the early experience
of Christianity had the effect that worldly success always remained something
extrinsic to the faith, Islam has been characteristically a religion of triumph
in success, of salvation through victory and achievement and power (ibid., p.
43).
Power through conquest is a basic theme
of the Koran, notwithstanding its repeated reference to Allah the
compassionate.а Although jihad (holy war) is not one of the
"five pillars" of Islam--profession of faith, prayer, alms-giving,
fasting, and pilgrimage--it is widely regarded as a basic tenet of Islamic law
(sharia).а And as Harkabi has written, Islam is a
"combatant" and "expansionist" creed.
Now it so happens that the early
success of Islam on the one hand, and its decay after the twelfth century on
the other, has induced in Arabs a sort of "collective daydreaming" of
future glory.а Encouraging Islamic
ambition is the moral decay of the West, which is manifested in the abysmal
character of those elected to the leadership of democratic states, including
Israel.а Steeped in secularism, hedonism,
and relativism, the democracies refuse to take Islam seriously.а Indeed, they supply Arab-Islamic dictators
with sophisticated military hardware and technology.а As is well known, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, and other Islamic
states are stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.а The immediate target, Israel.а
The ultimate target, the West.