Islam : Beyond “religion of peace”

After September 11, 2001, many Muslim, on a number of occasions, found himself or herself repeating something akin to this phrase: “Islam is a religion of peace. The actions of these terrorists do not represent real Islam.”

At a fundamental level, the Islamic tradition offers a path to peace, both in the heart of the individual and in the world at large, when the Islamic imperatives for social justice are followed. Yet there is something pathetically apologetic about turning the phrase “Islam is a religion of peace” into a mantra. It is bad enough to hear Muslim spokespersons repeat it so often while lacking the courage to face the forces of extremism in our own midst. It is just as bad to hear a United States President reassure us that he respects Islam as a “religion of peace” as he prepares to bomb Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq, or support the brutal oppression of Palestinians. In both of the above senses, “Islam is a religion of peace” has become to many ears a hollow phrase, full of apologism and hypocrisy.

As Muslims, we owe it to ourselves to come to terms with the problems inside our own communities. All societies have their beautiful and noble citizens, along with their share of hateful and extremist ones. Muslims are human, not an ounce less and not an ounce more than any other people. We too have our saints and sinners, our fanatical zealots and compassionate exemplars.

At this stage of history our primary responsibility is to come to terms with the oppressive tyrants and fanatics inside our own communities, our own families, and our own hearts. Hiding behind the simple assertion that “Islam is a religion of peace” does not solve our problems.

It seems to that we have lost sight of the real meaning of “peace,” just as we have lost a real sense of “war.” Many have come to think of peace as simply the absence of war, or at least the absence of violent conflict. Yet, we must preserve the possibility of upholding resistance to well-entrenched systems of inequality and injustice through non-violent conflict. This is one of the great challenges of our time: affirming the right of a people who have been dehumanized and oppressed to resist, while encouraging them to do so non-violently. This is a great challenge indeed.

The very concept of “peace” can be and has been co-opted and adopted by hegemonic powers to preserve the unjust status quo, as we have seen in both Israel and apartheid-era South Africa. At times like this, we must reject the superficial appeals of an unjust peace, and insist instead on a peace that is rooted in justice. In his Nobel Peace Prize lecture, Dalai Lama stated, “Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold . . . Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.” It is, rather, a declaration that one will fight systems of prejudice, injustice, and inequality.

The statement that “Islam is a religion of peace” must not be allowed to become a license to avoid dealing with the grinding realities of social, political, and spiritual injustice on the ground level. To do so is to sell out our humanity, and to abandon our cosmic duty to embody the Qur’anic call for implementing justice (‘adl) and realizing goodness-and-beauty (ihsan). Our great challenge as Muslims is to find a non-violent means of resisting the powers that be, and to speak truth to them. At the same time, we must aim to bring about a just and pluralistic society in which all of us can live and breathe, and realize the God-given dignity to which we are entitled as human beings. We do not grant this dignity to one another: it belongs to all of us simply because, as the Qur’an teaches us, all of us have the Divine spirit breathed into us.