In Search of Islamic Justice Beyond 9/11

There is nothing in this clash of fundamentalisms that is intrinsically Islamic, in the same way that there is nothing intrinsically Christian about the religion of the Market or of the ideology of apartheid. That the Muslims responsible for the so called terrorist attacks may have been inspired by Islam is plausible; that they used Islam as justification for their deeds is apparent for the Qur'an is as open to diverse readings as any other text. There is thus some responsibility on the part of Muslim thinkers to expose and oppose the theological and textual basis of their arguments. To confine oneself to combat with those tendencies, however, is inadequate from both a South perspective as well as an Islamic one. To do so also risks being co-opted in an uncritical peace discourse that has a name: Pax Americana; peace on the terms of the United States and with an ideology incompatible with social, economic, political and environmental justice.

A progressive commitment to destabilizing the current world order – and destabilization is not to be conflated with political violence as numerous activists in the global justice movement are increasingly demonstrating - is not an option because of a blind hatred. Rather, unlike the Market fundamentalists, Muslims should actually believe that an alternative vision of the world and being in it is possible. Humankind, are not only consumers or the objects of greed; we are in a state of returning to God. Islam is, indeed, a religion of peace, but not exclusively that. It also calls upon people to destabilize the peace when it hides the demons of injustice. In addition to confronting the fundamentalism of the Market and the havoc that it has played with we also have to deal with the problem of Muslim brokenness, fragile egos and delusions of grandeur involving our power and control over a world governed by the shari‘ah. The problem with Muslim fundamentalism is that is as totalitarian and exclusive as the order that it seeks to displace. It seeks to create an order wherein they are the sole spokespersons for a rather vengeful, patriarchal and chauvinistic God – a God that incidentally resembles that of George W. Bush and his fellow travelers in the religious right wing. 

The Taliban represent the logical consequence of a literalist and misogynistic reading of our earlier Islamic heritage; a reading that is far from an aberration. They have, for example, always insisted that women will also have access to medical treatment if the government can afford it. How different is this from the Wahhabi regime in Saudi regime where they do enforce this segregation because they have the financial resources to do so. When we see Osama sitting cross-legged surrounded by hundred of books on Islamic jurisprudence and theology, we are seeing one of the strands in the Islamic. Arguing that the Taliban and the Wahhabis do not “really” represent Islam is unhelpful for we fall into the trap of setting ourselves up as the sole authentic spokespersons—the same weapon that is being used against many Muslims who stands out to talk against attrocities commited in name of Islam. We can insist on asking, along with `Ali Shari‘ati,: “Whose Islam? Whose lives and interest are being advanced by our understanding and interpretation of Islam?”

Which Islam is that the Shah refers to? Is it the Islam of imperialism? An Islam which is made for the next world and says nothing about this world. The imperialist brand of Islam dictates that Islamic nations be their colonies and allows then to loot the wealth, resources and productivity of Muslim lands.

People concerned about other people and aware that the earth is our only home with finite resources need to find each other and collectively work for socio-economic alternatives before these fanatics led by Corporate America under the flag of the McDonalds’ Golden Arches and Bush as its spokesperson or Al-Qaeda under the crescent with Osama bin Ladin as its spokesperson - destroy all of us.